Okami of Brockton Bay
by Merriest Wood
Summary: when Taylor gained the power over insects a god died. but what would happen if she gained divine powers that were not related to the entity's in anyway the answer pure chaos the kind of which only Taylor could ever manage to bring upon the world. I do not own anything of worm or Okami.
1. Chapter 1

**The Brockton bay's general hospital two days after the locker incident. **

"_Beep beep beep beep_." Was the continuously repeating sound that gently greeted the slowly awakening Taylor Hebert, she groggily opened her eyes to see the plain white walls and ceiling that was stereotypical of a hospital room.

"_I'm still alive?" _Confusingly thought Taylor as she sat up and looked around the room. This was defiantly not the insides of her locker that she had been so forcefully stuffed into a few days ago by her unrelenting bully Sophia Hess. Meaning that someone must have pulled her out of the locker and had called an ambulance to help treat whatever injuries she most likely had suffered while being stuffed inside her bug and waste infested locker.

_'Well, at least this is better than the locker." _Taylor silently thought to herself, taking some kind of comfort in the fact that she was finally out of the nightmare that had been her locker. Although that quickly gave away to confusion as she noticed that she felt good and I mean really, really good like she could run a few hundred marathons without any problem and still keep going which didn't make any sense. As she had been trapped in a locker for god knows how long which should have at least left her a weak, sickly mess at best, a rotting corpse at the worst.

"_At least Sophia can't do anything worse than this_." She thought with a sad chuckle as she tried and failed to imagine her bullying trio doing anything that could top this little prank of theirs. Just as she was about to sink deeper into her saddening and depressing thoughts, she suddenly noticed something large moving under her bedsheets, causing her to tilt her head in confused curiosity.

"_That's odd I wonder what that could be?" _She curiously thought while lifting her covers. Taylor barely managed to bite back a scream of surprise as she saw a large fluffy pure white wolf's tail that was twice as long as she was tall and much to Taylor's disbelief it was connected at the base of her tail bone meaning that it was apart of her. "_What the hell that wasn't there before!" _She mentally wailed in confusion while her newly discovered tail twitched wildly a bit at its owners apparent discomfort.

"Okay, Taylor just clam down its just a tail it's not like anything else has been changed right." She whispered to herself in an attempt to calm herself, only for her eyes to widen as the last thing she said had registered itself in her mind and without thinking the young teen jumped out of bed and run into the nearby bathroom that was across the hall.

"_This, this can't be right!?" _Taylor thought to herself in disbelief as she stared at her reflection. Though instead of seeing her usual plane raven hair and stick-like figure she instead saw a beautiful girl with long flowing white hair that matched the colour of her tail with a set of wolf ears sticking out of the top of her head. She also had strange red tattoos on her face, two tiger-like strips on each cheek along with a sun-like symbol that was on her forehead. Taylor also noticed that her eyes were a golden honey-rich colour with slitted pupils, and when she opened her mouth, she saw a set of wolflike fangs protruding from her upper gums.

"_This can't be happening; this can't be happening!" _Taylor thought while having what felt like a small panic attack, as she tried to come to terms that the beautiful young wolflike women that was staring back at her in the mirror. Was indeed herself because she was pretty sure that she didn't look anything like this when she had been stuffed into the locker.

Taylor suddenly froze as her mind slowly, but surely put the pieces of the puzzle together. Her new wolf ears sticking upwards as her eyes grew wider than they already were as the answer to how she became like this became clear.

"_I triggered inside the locker," _thought Taylor with sadness in her heart knowing that her bully's had caused the worse day of her life which made her turn into the now breathtakingly beautifully women that she was now. "_Well, at least Emma and her friends can no longer say that I'm ugly anymore_." She thought with an uneasy smile as she tried to find a small silver lining in all this mess that she had found herself in. Though when she thought about people seeing her new form, she felt a feeling of dread slowly began to build up inside her stomach.

"_People must have already seen me. I mean I'm in a hospital how could they have not seen how much I've changed from the locker!" _Taylor's breath quickened at the thought of people seeing her, of gangs coming here to recruit her against her will or hurting her dad to get to her and with each new thought, Taylor's breath grow more frantic as more even worse case scenarios formed themselves inside her mind's eye.

"Um, Miss Hebert, are you all right in there?" The voice of a nurse came from the other side of the bathroom door which snapped Taylor out of her panicking. "Yes, I'll be out in just a second!" Quickly replied Taylor as she adjusted her hospital gown to fit appropriately. While also noticing that her body had the same red tattoo's that were on her face and much to her embarrassment she could also tell that she was now much more curvier and filled out than she had been before her recent trigger event.

"_Oh great now I'll have to get new clothes because there's no way my old ones will fit me now." _Taylor mentally whined at the thought of looking for new clothes and all the money it would take to get them seeing as her family didn't have that much money, to begin with. They could ill afford the many new clothes that Taylor would need to replace her entire wardrobe.

_"I can think about that later right now I have much bigger concerns to deal with." _Thought Taylor while putting such thoughts about clothes to the back of her mind. Though once she had opened the door, her golden eyes landed upon the nurse, and she froze as suddenly the life of the 39-year-old women Jane smith began to play itself within her mind's eye. From her happy, carefree childhood to her stressful days at college and beyond and with each scene played before her mind's eye Taylor felt a strange type of familial love for the women before her, starting to grow within her heart, which was beyond weird as the nurse was 24 years her senior, had two kids that were now starting high school no husband, however, as the poor man had died two years ago when the E88 and ABB had a battle over some territory that ended with deaths of over thirty people. With her aforementioned husband being among the poor souls who had lost their lives that day.

"Miss Hebert are you sure that you are okay?" asked the short and rather plump Jane Smith who's chocolatey brown eyes stared at the younger girl with deep concern, the woman's kindness. Didn't surprise Taylor though since she had just saw Jane's whole life literally flash before her own eyes and thanks to that she knew that Jane was a very kind and gentle soul who loved to help people which was why the plump women had trained very hard to be a nurse so as to help the people of the bay in the best way that she knew how, which was healing those who had become hurt by the city's gangs or just people who got sick with the flu or some other kind of illness.

"_She can't see the real me_." A gentle relief and slight twinge of sadness filled Taylor's heart when she realised that the nurse standing before her couldn't see her true form. Though the youngest of the Hebert clan only figured that out when the last bits of Jane's life finally played out within her mind, the last memory that she saw. Was of herself coming out of the bathroom looking from Jane's perspective just as she did before the whole locker incident. "Is it some kind of stranger effect?" Pondered the white-haired wolf girl silently whist her new wolf ears without her even noticing perked forwards in a sign of curiosity.

"_Something to think on later I suppose, but for now I better answer Jane before my silence begins to worry her."_

"Yes, I'm fine just a little bit Sleepy and groggy after waking up just now." Taylor gave her words more believability by stretching and letting out a loud yawn.

"Hum." Quietly hummed the plump nurse in thought while gently rubbing her chin. "Well, that's quite normal, especially after what you've been through." Calmly said Smith while her warm brown eyes unknowingly stared into Taylor's now golden ones. "I mean being stuffed into a toxic filled locker for a few days must have been awful for you." Taylor smiled warmly at Jane. Because she knew thanks to her strange new ability that she had gotten from her trigger event that the older women was being heartfelt about what she was saying when it came to what had happened to Taylor and the school locker.

"It was indeed, horrible." Agreed Taylor while shivering when the memories of the toxic locker returned to the forefront of her mind. Just the memory of the foul stench of waste alone made the wolf girl want to throw up whatever remained within her stomach. "But right now I'm just happy to be alive." She sincerely told the caring nurse while returning to her temporary room within the hospital. Jane was right behind her ready to help in case anything suddenly happened to the young girl who had such a terrifying experience.

"By the way, do you know where my dad is right now?" Taylor politely inquired though she already knew thanks to seeing Jane's memories though strangely enough, she couldn't see new ones like the conversation that they both just had with one another a few seconds ago. Making Taylor silently theorise that her power could only let her see someones past memories. Whatever it was that she had seen from first laying eyes on Jane only seemed to work once which was a massive relief because Taylor really didn't want to keep rewatching people's lives over and over again when she meets them again that would have been a rather nasty problem to deal with. The wolf girl didn't need something like that in her life, especially not with the shadow of the trio still hanging over her head like some kind of unseen predator.

"Yes," began Jane, who was kindly helping her back into the hospital bed. She fluffed the pillow until it was nice and soft. "Unfortunately your father a good man if I do say, so myself was called way because some kind of emergency has appeared with the dockworkers union." When Taylor was settled into the bed, the plump nurse grabbed a glass of water on a nearby table which Taylor hadn't noticed when she had been running into the bathroom to get a good look at herself within the mirror. "Although I haven't the foggiest clue about what it was it must have been important because that man hasn't left your side since you came here not even to bath or changed clothes." The she-wolf smiled at hearing that knowing her farther the way she did; it sounded exactly like the kind of thing he would do because although they had been having a bit of a ruff patch since her mother death a few years ago they still both loved each other immensely. Now, after all this, Taylor planned to talk with her father more often. After all, near-death had a way of changing a persons' priorities and this little brush in had made the wolf girl realise that she needed to talk to him about everything, not the whole wolf girl thing the city's gangs and me that could come later but about school and as much as she really didn't want to about Emma and all the nasty things she had done to her over the past few years since mum died.

"I see well if its an emergency then it can't be helped then can it?" Taylor said with a soft smile while taking the glass of water that Jane had silently offered. "Though if it isn't to much trouble do you happen to know when he will be back from the docks?" Again she already knew the answer, but for the sake of appearances and the desire to not be outed as a Parahuman, she would ask them anyway after all nothing screamed cape. Then suddenly knowing things that you shouldn't know because that would make people think that she was a thinker and from what Taylor could vaguely recall about some capes on the internet told her that being confused for a thinker was terrible thing especially for your future health.

"Of course dear, he said that he would be back within the next few hours if things at the docks go well." Jane happily told the already knowing wolf girl before her, and after Taylor had fully drank the whole cup of water, she gently took it away from her and placed it back onto the nearby table. "Now I do really hate to leave you, especially after you just wake up, but I'm afraid I have other patients to visit so I must be off." The caring nurse softly patted Taylor's hand. A warm, reassuring smile was upon her lips. "But if you require anything, anything at all just hit this call button here on the wall, and I'll be right here as fast as I can, to help you with whatever it is that you would need." The plump and kind nurse quickly explained while pointing at the aforementioned call button that hang innocently on the wall right next to her bed.

"I understand." Taylor nodded before a playful smile stretched its way across her lips. "Now go save the world miss super nurse." She playfully told Jane who threw her head back and laughed it was a laugh full of joy and happiness something which Taylor herself had been sadly absent of ever since Emma's bullying and destruction of her mother's flute by her former best friend but what really surprised the wolf girl in this very moment was her newly found playfulness. Usually, Taylor was shy not wanting to interact with people because of this shyness. It had made it hard for her to make friends which was probably why Emma's betrayal had hurt so much, but now that shyness was miraculously gone and replaced by a newly found urge to play and make people laugh and be truly happy like she had just done for Jane Smith.

"Well, I better be off then." Happily said Jane while smiling warmly at Taylor after finally calming down from her laughing fit. "After all, I can't be a super nurse by just staying here all day now, can't I?" The plump women playfully asked the wolf girl before letting out a joyful chuckle at her own words.

"No, I suppose you can't." Playfully replied Taylor, who flashed a wolfish smile at the nurse whilst her fluffy white tail happily wagged back and forth under her bedsheets. Though thankfully much like her new form the nurse couldn't see the tail moving the sheets either that or Jane was a doing a remarkably good job at ignoring it though from what she had glanced from the nurse's mind Taylor believed it was the former rather than the latter. "Well, I guess I shall be seeing you later then?" Taylor asked though knowing Jane's character like she did the nurse would defiantly be back to see her again.

"Oh, most defiantly." Reassured the kindly nurse while giving Taylor a small comforting pat on the head and the white-haired wolf girl had to use all her willpower to stop herself from releasing a happy whine from the back of her throat as the nurse's hand was placed in-between her sensitive newly gained wolf ears. "Well have a pleasant day young Taylor." Jane removed her hand, and Taylor was very tempted to demand that she but it back and scratch her behind her wolf ears, but thankfully she held herself back from doing so, and just instead quietly watched as Jane walked out of the room and finally leaving Taylor alone with her thoughts.

"_Well, at least this day can't get any weirder than it already has." _Taylor thought with a sigh while relaxing into her rather comfy hospital bed though really at this point. Taylor should have known better than to tempt fate like that, because not even a moment later the young she-wolf heard Jane's voice echo through the hallway and the words that she heard caused her to bolt upright and her wolf ears to perk up in alertness.

"My word just how on earth did all these flowers and fresh grass get into the hospitals flooring?!"

"_Grass and flowers in the floor_." Nervously thought Taylor with a small gulp as she slowly looked down at the side of her bed and what she saw on the floor confirmed her slight fear on what she would find there. Because springing out between the white sterile tiles of the floor were patches of fresh, bright green grass along with a wide variety of flowers which come in all manner of diverse shapes styles and colours. They were beautiful really though it didn't change the fact that they had come from her, and unlike her new appearance others could see them.

_"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" _Thought Taylor annoyed, which was understandable as she almost had a panic attack from believing that people may see her new form. Only to calm down when she figured that she possessed some kind of stranger power. That seemingly prevented anyone from seeing her true form, and just as she was about to relax, she finds out that she could not only create plant life from nothing. But it wasn't even affected by the stranger effect that prevented anyone from seeing her new wolf parts and strange red tattoos. "_I mean, come on! My powers protect me from being truly seen as a cape which is a godsend, but its gonna be so embarrassing if plants are going to be the thing that gets me outed as a Parahuman. And not some kind of big fight between the city's gangs and me."_

Taylor groaned at how embarrassing her outing would be she could just picture Emma and her other tormenters pointing and laughing at her for getting found out because she unknowingly made flowers appear from thin air. Heck, it could get even worse as they could say that no one, not even the PRT who had a well-known reputation for excepting anyone with powers into there ranks would want her. Because who would ever want someone whose only ability was to make grass grow and honestly Taylor couldn't blame them for thinking that since they wouldn't be able to see her new wolf features. However, it wouldn't make their insults hurt any less.

"_Wait a minute, if Jane thought for even a moment that I had made the grass and flowers appear then she would have come running back here to ask if I could make them go away." _Her annoyance was quickly fading. Taylor tilted her head to the right, her fluff white wolf ears twitching in curiosity_. "Maybe my powers allow people to see the plants but not understand that it was me who grew them_." If that was indeed the case, then she had the strangest power set in the world though she would have to wait for Jane to come back so she could discreetly ask her if she knew where the plants and flowers had come from before she could know for sure if her powers were acting like she had just theorised.

"Ah, just another worrying thing to think about today." Taylor quietly grumbled to herself only to freeze as her tail suddenly whipped out of the bedsheets and hung lazily in the air just seeing the fluffy appendage made the she-wolf feel a new wave of playfulness enter her heart. Without even thinking about it, Taylor jumped into the air with a level of skill and grace that would make even professional gymnasts go green with envy. A rueful smile was on her face as she tried relentlessly to capture her tail while being unaware of how she effortlessly danced in the air and soundlessly bounced off the hospital's walls leaving behind patches of beautiful flowers and grass in her wake.

"_I know that dad will be sad when I tell him about Emma," _the wolf girl thought while spinning through the air her hands outstretched reaching outward for her soft tail only to miss it by a few centimetres. It didn't deter her though as she subconsciously backflipped onto a nearby wall and used it as a springboard launching herself back into the air in hot pursuit of her elusive tail. "_I know he will be mad furious even, but I know deep within my heart that we can get through what has happened as a family." _She once again missed her tail though this time she silently landed on the ground on all fours her ears perked up alert while her tail just hung there in the air taunting her with her ineffectiveness in capturing it. "_We will talk build and restore our relationship as father and daughter_." Not letting her foe have even a moments rest Taylor rocketed back into the air her golden eyes shining with a warmth and joy she had lacked since her mother had died those few short years ago_. "Because together, I know that we can do anything." _

Taylor landed on a wall her clawed hands and feet another change that she hadn't yet noticed dug themselves into the wall like a hot knife through soft butter_. "But before all that_." The young tattooed girl's eyes playfully narrowed as she dutifully watched her new nemeses flouting in the air once again taunting her with its fluffiness. Tensing her muscles for another great leap, she growled playfully at the appendage before launching herself back into the air a yelp of happiness tearing itself away from her throat as she failed once again to capture the elusive tail.

"_**I must first catch my tail!" **_And that was how Taylor started the first chapter of her new life. Not by fighting an epic battle with a truly awful monster of nightmares like Brockton city's gang leaders, or a hope destroying Endbringer and certainly not by having her mind clouded by her fears of school bullies and possible future as a hero but by joyfully playing with her tail until her father returned to the hospital in a few hours. However, he was in for quite the shocking surprise when he next sees his daughter that was for sure.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Brockton Bay's General Hospital a few hours since Taylor Woke up.**

Stressed and tired.

Those two words were perfect in describing how Danny Hebert felt right now as he tiredly walked through the front doors of the bay's general hospital. After spending nearly six hours dealing with the aftermath of a huge fight between some of his fellow union members and the city's local drug gang, the merchants. They, for reasons that Danny couldn't really comprehend, had decided that trying to steal from the union was a good idea. Thankfully the homeless gang's leader and his two cape subordinates hadn't been there, which made chasing off the drugged-up idiots who thought themselves a deadly and unstoppable gang much more straightforward than it would typically be. Although the fight had been easer, it had still caused some serious damage to the equipment and tools that the union needed. Which he had to help with replacing by calling in favours from various people, which was the main reason that he had been away from his daughter's bedside for so long, as getting the replacements had taken much of those six hours to accomplish.

"_I swear Its like the merchants just keep getting more stupid as the years roll by." _Danny thought with a tired sigh, while politely waving at the women staffing the front desk. She gave a cheery wave back before returning to whatever it was she was doing on the front desks ancient-looking computer. _"I mean just what were they thinking attacking us and in the middle of broad daylight no less_." The Hebert patriarch shook his head in exasperation of it all. Because clearly the forty-three plus merchant members that had attacked the unions' primary tool and equipment storehouse weren't thinking at all. Besides trying to steal their stuff so they could sell it off so they could get money just to waste. Whatever money they could have made from the theft on getting high on drugs.

"Oh, hello, is that you mister Hebert?" A voice that sounded like it belonged to someone just as tired and mentally drained as he currently felt called from behind him just as he was about to enter the hallway, which lead to his little Owl's room. Knowing who it was that had just called out to him, Danny placed the best smile he could onto his lips and turned around to come face to scarf with the worlds greatest Parahuman healer, Panacea. A young woman who Danny could only describe as a mousy girl with frizzy brown hair wearing a white robe with a large hood and the only real eye-catching feature about the robe was the medics red cross proudly displayed on the front and back of it.

"Panacea good to see you." Greeted Danny in a tone of voice far more cheerful than he actually felt at that moment. Still, it would be rude not to politely greet the person who has for the last two days being helping with his daughter's health. A fact which the leader of the union was eternally grateful as the mousy girl really didn't need to continue doing that after she had first checked up on Taylor. But still, Panacea had taken the time to make sure that his little Owl was okay, a kindness that Danny fully planned to return someday in full. Whenever the medic Parahuman required him or the union because for all that, she had done, the mousy girl deserved that much at least.

"Have you come to give Taylor another checkup?" Danny asked the heroine while continuing his walk towards his daughter's room.

"Umm hum, the director of the local protectorate branch has asked me to do another in-depth scan of Taylor's body in the hopes of finding any clues to help them catch the Parahuman that not only saved but completely healed her from the locker." The medic cape tiredly replied, causing Danny to wince at what the young girl had just told him. He really didn't like remembering that his Little Owl was found unconscious and naked on Winslow high school girls changing room floor. Right next to her own locker, a locker from the pictures that the police had shown him two days ago. It currently looking like someone had taken the very power of the sun itself from the sky and had then used said sun power to melt the locker into nothing more than a heaping pile of scrap metal. That didn't even cover the thousands of charred insects that had laid scattered around his daughter's body like some kind of massive bug graveyard.

"Well, I sincerely hope so because I would really like to shake the hand of the person that saved my daughter." Danny smiled at the young healer while internally grimacing as he knew that they wouldn't find the one who had supposedly healed his little Owl because Danny had already figured it out that his daughter had healed herself. By using her powers, or that was what he thought at any rate. Danny knew that his Owl had powers because he, unlike anyone else that he had seen so far, could perfectly see her new wolf form and red tattoos. At first, the Hebert patriarch had worriedly thought that his sweet daughter had become a Parahuman. But after a quick brain scan and an additional look from Panacea, those fears had been completely destroyed though unfortunately replaced by an even greater confusion about the whole mess that he had found himself in. As both the scan and Panacea herself had confirmed that Taylor didn't possess a Corona Pollentia or its smaller counterpart, the Gamma, meaning that she shouldn't look like a white-haired wolf girl that apparently only he could see. Either that or the years of none stop worrying and stress over the union and the safety of his daughter. Had finally driven him crazy. Seeing things that weren't actually there, he sincerely hoped that wasn't the case because Danny preferred to stay sane. Thank you very much.

"Well, here's hoping for the best then." Replied Panacea, who yawned, a sure sign of tiredness to the leader of the union. The poor girl really needed to get some sleep at some point. "But I'm highly doubtful that I'll find anything new since I've already taken a look at Taylor's biology about twenty-three times now and haven't found anything new thus far." The duo of healer and farther walked down the hallway, only to stop as they saw a carpet of green grass and the most breathtaking flowers neither has ever seen stretch out before them from the floors only bathroom to the youngest Hebert's hospital room.

It took Danny only a second to figure out that this was most likely Taylor's doing intentional or not was yet to be decided. Still, it seemed that whatever it was that kept people from seeing his newly made wolfish daughter's true form was working its magic on Panacea. Because for a split second, the mousy girl's eyes seemed to fog over for a moment before the medic cape tilted her head in confusion at the flowery scene before them. An action mimicked by a few of the passing nurses and doctors who were lingering around the hallway just staring in awe at the brightly coloured flowers, not that he could blame them seeing as the flowers were breathtaking if he did say so himself.

"Huh, where did all these flowers come from?" The mousy Parahuman kneeled down and gently touched one that looked like a rose fully blooming with her fingertip. When her skin and petal made contact, Panacea seemed to lock up for a second or two. Her muscles tensing then relaxing a moment later, a blissful sigh escaping her mouth before reluctantly removing her finger from the flower and standing back up. "Well, whatever they are, I'm sure that the hospital staff can manage it for now." Even with the scarf, Danny could tell that she really wanted to touch the flower again, but it seemed that Panacea wasn't going to let her desires stop her from doing her job. An admirable trait one he wished others at city hall would imitate but knowing that was unlikely as the slaughterhouse 9 becoming heroes and saving the day.

A moment of speed walking later lead the two of them in front of Taylor's room. A brown door with no window identical to every other door in the hallway and the surrounding level, with the only distinctive thing about the door itself, was it's number 273, golden plated and placed at the center top of the door, just brushing the top doorframe itself.

"Well, let's see how the patient is doing today, shall we?" Panacea asked though Danny couldn't help but notice that the mousy girl seemed to have slightly more energy to her movements. Like whatever happened when she had touched, the rose flower had somehow energized her, making the healer seem more alive then she had been before when they had first ran into each other a few short minutes ago.

"Lets." Was his short reply while gesturing towards the door handle that the healer grabbed onto, then swiftly twisted followed by pushing it, causing the door to swing inwards allowing the both of them to see inside the room. For the first time in many years for Danny since Annette had passed away, did he regret not having a phone, especially one with a camera. Because he would have dearly loved to take a picture right now, what was it the Hebert patriarch so desperately wanted to capture on film, you may ask. Well, it was his little Owl, or should it be wolf now? Anyway, his daughter was currently hunched over on all fours like a wolf, which was kind of appropriate given Taylor's new looks. But what really made Danny want to awww at this moment was seeing his daughter cutely munching on her tail like it was some kind of chew toy. He could swear that he heard her muffled voice say things like. "That's right suffer," or "you have been defeated my arch-nemesis." Add-in that her wolf ears had flattened backwards only enhanced the scene. Almost making Danny feel a great divine sadness at the fact that he didn't have a camera to preserve this cute scene forever. Also that he had just lost a great moment to gather blackmail on his daughter, he couldn't say which one hurt the most, but either way, such a lost opportunity was truly a shame.

"Ahem, I hope we're not interrupting something important, kiddo?" Danny barely stopped himself from laughing like a madman when he saw Taylor freeze. Her mouth stuffed with fur that he could easily vouch for was as soft as a cloud, since he had ran his fingers through it for the last two days as it had helped him cope when Taylor had been unconscious. Though now it would seem that his little Owl was full of energy if the way she had just been ruthlessly biting into her '_arch-nemesis' _was any indication, then she was on the fast track to recovery. Though he would have to ask her in private why flowers were growing out of her hospital rooms walls because he was pretty sure those weren't there when he had left a few shorts hours ago.

"Hum, I can explain." Tried to say the muffled voice of his daughter who's teeth were still firmly clamped onto her tail, while her cheeks glowed a rosy red in embarrassment at having been caught using her tail as a chew toy.

"Well, while being hunched over the bed is strange, you hardly owe us an explanation." Said Panacea casually, and Danny made a quick mental note to ask his daughter if he could somehow borrow whatever power it was that made people ignore every weird thing that happened around her. Because it could be handy with helping him get out of work for a few days, and honestly, after all, he had to put up with from the PRT continually pestering him about if he knew anything about the mysterious healing Parahuman. That was actually his daughter, or to the recent merchant gang attack, he really did deserve a break from his work at the office.

"Taylor," the Hebert patriarch began catching his daughter's attention. "This is Panacea. She's been helping with your health for the past two days." He gestured with his right hand towards the most famous healing cape on the planet who just slightly nodded her head in greeting. Though once again, Danny had to stop himself from laughing as Taylor's mouth dropped open in shock, allowing her tail to fall out and hit the bed with a small thud. While her golden eyes, a feature that he hadn't seen before, now widen with shocked awe and the best two emotions that he could have ever hoped to see embarrassment and joy shining clearly within those golden orbs.

"P…p…p…Panacea." Taylor stuttered in shock, and he couldn't blame her for that as he had a similar reaction when he was first introduced to the mousy brown-haired girl. "As in Panacea, the world's greatest healer Panacea?" coincidentally, that had been the very same question he had asked as well. Guess the old saying was true after all great minds do, in fact, think alike.

"Well, I didn't know any other healers with the same cape name as mine, so yeah, I'm the Panacea." The miracle healing heroine said tiredly while walking over to his daughter's bedside and doing a remarkable job at ignoring all the flowers that covered every surface of the rooms four walls and ceiling. "But we're not here for me now, are we?" the heroine rhetorically asked while Taylor moved to sit on the side of the bed with her legs now hanging off of the side. "No, we are here for you and to make sure that your properly healed so…" Panacea held out her hand towards his only child. "May I have your permission to heal you?" The request flowed flawlessly from her tongue, probably a side effect from constantly asking to do so after many years of healing.

"Sure." With that simple form of consent given, Panacea reached out and touched Taylor's arm, and just like the reaction with the flower, the heroine froze then relaxed. However, this time it seemed to Danny that the effects were magnified a hundredfold as the healer's eyes dropped until they were half-lidded and a sigh of pure joy and bliss escaped from her lips. It was honestly one of the strangest things that he had seen today, and he had seen a lot of weird stuff over the past two days. So that was saying something, but thankfully it only lasted for a moment. Before Panacea's eyes snapped open in alertness and quicker than he has ever seen the tired mousy girl move, she had bolted away from the bed and was now standing in the doorway.

"She'sfindjustneedssomerestandfluidsthat'sallneededanythingelsenokaythanksbye!" The worlds flowed so fast out of the healer's mouth that neither Danny nor his daughter could make out what she was saying, and before they even had the chance to ask her to slow down and repeat what she had just said, the worlds greatest healer had already left and had slammed the door behind her on the way out. Leaving behind the father and daughter duo to themselves with only silence as their company.

"Huh, I think you just broke Panacea 'little Owl.'" Danny finally broke the silence after a few minutes causing Taylor to glare at him in annoyance. Which only made him chuckle as any intimidation factor she possessed was ruined by her flattening her wolf ears and pouting adorably at him while her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel. Once again, Danny lamented the fact that he wasn't in possession of a camera. "Still putting aside famous hero's for now. The fact that we are finally alone gives us plenty of time to talk about your new looks." Any traces of annoyance that she may have had with him vanished right there and then, and now she stared at him in openly displayed surprised confusion.

"Wait, you can see me?" He chuckled as his little Owl's eyes widen in surprise, whist her tail waved back and forth behind her in what he could only guess to be happiness.

"It would be very hard to miss that you've changed drastically since they've found you inside your locker, kiddo." He calmly walked over and sat down on the bed next to Taylor, who scooted closer while wrapping her tail around them and dammit it was still the softest thing he as ever felt in his entire life. But it still wouldn't distract him from having this much-needed talk with his daughter. "Speaking of which, are you gonna tell me just how you wound up trapped in there with a bunch of insects and human waste." He carefully watched as his daughter stiffened for a split second before sighing tirelessly, her shoulders hunched slightly in a mixture of sadness and tiredness.

"Okay," Taylor began. "But, I promise you're not gonna like what you'll hear, dad." She finished her sentence by scratching the back of her head awkwardly.

"I think I wouldn't like how you wound up inside that deathtrap no matter how you got there, Taylor." Danny crossed his arms while staring directly into his daughter's golden eyes, which would take some time getting used to. "So lay it on me, kiddo, and don't leave anything out. I want the whole thing." He watched as his only living family member closed her eyes took a deep breath to steel herself before opening them. Reviling a look of pure determination that reminded him so much of Annette, truly Taylor was becoming more and more like her mother with each passing year and no time did it show more than in that look right now.

"Alright, but just remember you asked for it." She warned him before launching into what happened. From when Emma had suddenly changed from her best friend into her worst enemy. To the past couple of years of bullying by the whole student body. Finally, after what felt like days of listening to his daughter recount her suffering to him, but was just a few hours at most. She told him about the locker of how the three worst of the bullies lead by Emma, which she called the trio, had filled her locker with human waste and other by-products, letting them fester over the weekend before shoving her inside of it when she was about to get changed for PE class. By the end of it, all Danny was but a few moments way from charging out of the room to go hunt down Alan to demand if he knew just what his own daughter had done to Taylor the only thing stopping him from doing that was the fact that Taylor needed him right now.

"Well, you were right, Taylor. I don't like this, not one bit." He sighed sadly while staring at the door. The temptation to go hunt down his daughter's tormenters and make them pay was truly tempting at the moment. "Still, I don't get it you and Emma were as thick as thieves. What could have possibly happened to her to have change that?" It must have been bad, he thought, to have changed that girl into such a little monster. The fact the redhead had destroyed his wife's flute didn't hurt him as much as knowing that she had done it to hurt his little Owl emotionally.

"I don't know," Taylor confessed sadly while her ears flattened again in grief at what has become of her former best friend, and what she had done to her mother's flute. "All I do know is that she had changed after I came back from summer camp." A growl escaped her throat as she remembered that day clearly. Upon starting her first day at Winslow and meeting Emma again, Taylor had discovered that Emma had made a new best friend while she had been away. A nasty bitch going by the name of Sophia Hess. A person who Taylor had always suspected was the one to turn Emma into the monster that she was now.

"So what are we gonna do now, dad?" She asked her father, who was thoughtfully humming while scratching his chin, which was covered with stubble.

"I don't really know right now Taylor," Danny confessed after giving it some thought. "But whatever comes our way, know that we will deal with as it comes together." He gave her shoulder a slight squeeze in comfort. "But first, you should rest up, and after your well enough, then we can focus on what we should do about Emma and everything else sound like a plan?" He flashed her a smile which was returned in kind, though her smile had a lot more sharp pointy teeth than his own possessed.

"Sounds good, but first, I have a question that I need to ask."

Danny raised an eyebrow at that, but he didn't see the harm in it. After all, nothing terrible ever happens from asking questions. "Shoot, kiddo." He said with a smile, fully believing that he was ready for anything that his daughter could throw at him.

"When were you gonna tell me that mom was part of a gang?" But apparently, his little Owl seemed to love proving him wrong about these kinds of things, as he stared wide-eyed at her smug face as she had just asked about something that she shouldn't have never have known about because Annette had done everything in her power to erase everything that connected her to Lustrum's gang from their home life. What she didn't get rid off, she stored up in the far back of the attic under a pile of junk so that Taylor could never find them.

H…how do you know about that?" He asked with a loud gulp, taken aback from the sudden revelation that his little girl now knew about what her mother had gotten up to in the past.

"Its one of my powers," Taylor began to explain the best she can to her father slowly. "Besides the whole growing plants' thing, wherever I walk and looking part wolf, I can view a persons life when I meet them for the first time. I see their past from their teenage childhood years and early adult lives. I learn about their greatest hopes, dreams, and sorrows, dad I…I…I know them better then they know themselves and when it's over my power shuts off, and I can't use it on them again, which is why I know about mom being apart of a gang because I learnt about it by seeing your life. Before you ask no, I don't have any control over it, it just happens. Every time I see someone new." With her explanation done, Taylor took a deep breath and waited to see just how her father would react to the knowledge that she had just given him.

"Taylor." Danny paused, mentally organizing his thoughts before continuing. "What you've just told me is a very dangerous ability." That was kind of an understatement. Really having the power to see another persons' life was a deadly ability to have, and he knew a vast mountain of people who would kill to have that kind of power literally. "So it's important that you under any circumstance don't tell anyone else that you have this ability got it?" He said in the most serious tone that he could manage because it was important for Taylor to understand the severity of the situation and not ever tell anyone about this, no matter what, even if it meant his own death.

"I understand dad, don't worry, I already planned to not tell anyone." Relief flooded him at those words. Glad that his little girl wasn't going to trust anyone outside of the family with the truth about this power. "But I still want you to tell me about mom and that gang she was apart of." Just like that, the relief died, and a groan of annoyance left his throat seriously. Couldn't she have dropped the subject.

"I thought you said that you already knew about that thanks to seeing my life." He still found that to be a little creepy, to be honest. But no matter what happens, Taylor would always be his and Annette's little Owl and nothing, not wolf ear or some freaky life seeing ability was going to change that not now, not ever.

"I do know, but I prefer hearing about; it from you. It adds character to the story that is your life." The little wolfish rascal had the gall to give him a cheeky smile when she finished speaking. Her molten gold eyes twinkled in amusement while she wrapped her right arm around his shoulder. Her wolf ear perked up in alertness a clear sign that his daughter wasn't going to let this go, so resigning himself to his fate, he smiled down at his daughter.

"Alright, well it all started back during our college years. I had just met your mother at….." And so Danny told Taylor the story about how he had meet Annette at her local college cafe. They hit it off almost instantly, and after a few dates with his future wife, he had learned of her affiliation with Lustrum's gang. Though thankfully Annette had enough sense to leave the group before the violence had truly started, and after a couple of months and a whole lot of dates, he and Annette had finally gotten married a year after they both left college.

As he kept telling Taylor about him and her mother, he felt himself relaxing while a truly peaceful smile graced his face. As he, too, allowed himself to be embraced by the story of the happy memories of his time spent with Annette and the crazy things the two had gotten up to when they were young. Which reminded him he should give Taylor a serious talking to about not doing some of the more stupid things that he and her mother gotten up to in their youth. Because there was no doubt that she had seen him hot wire that sports car that one time when he had lost a bet to his wife and had taken the both of them for a joyride, and for the sake of his sanity, he wouldn't allow his daughter to repeat it.

Though as he keeps talking, he couldn't help but wonder about what had happened to Panacea to make the heroine run off like she had done.

**Panacea after she had left the Hebert's. **

Some people thought that she had volunteered to help the Heberts' out of the goodness of her heart, and while that was partly true, Amy Dallon A.K.A, the heroine Panacea had a more selfish reason in wanting to help the family of two. That selfish reason had been born when she had first touched the unconscious form of Taylor Hebert. When Taylor had been first brought into the hospital, although to understand what was going on a person would have to first understand how her ability worked. You see, Amy was a biokinetic with an unrivaled understanding of everything biological along with the power to shape or modify that biological mass as she saw fit. But when she had touched the raven-haired girl whose room she had just left for the first time, she had seen something that had taken her very breath way.

Perfection pure biological perfection.

That was the only way she could put it into words every part of Taylor biology was working in absolute harmony right down to the cellular level. To someone with powers like Amy's, it was beyond beautiful, which had been why she had gone to check up on Taylor so many times. Not to try and find out if there was any type of clue which may lead the Protectorate to the cape who had saved the girl from the locker to try and recruit them. No, Amy simply wanted to bask in the prescience of the girl who was perfection made flesh whose body seemed to radiate some kind of strange unknown energy that only she could feel while in contact with Taylor. At first, Amy had thought that Taylor was a Parahuman, but after checking her brain, she found that her recent object of interest didn't possess a Corona Pollentia nor a Gamma, meaning whatever it was she was sensing wasn't related to Parahumans in any way.

'_Still, I have to get away from her before I lose my mind." _Amy thought to herself while running through the halls, trying to put as much distance between her and the ultimate temple to biological perfection that was resting in the room that was on the other side of the hospital. "_But should I really stay way," _a traitorous part of her brain whispered. "_I mean, we left in such a hurry. Maybe we should go back and apologize for leaving like we did. It was rude of you, after all, to leave a patient like that_." Her traitorous mind kept trying to trick her into going back to bask once more in that energy that felt so warm, inviting, loving. Dare she even think of it divine like a goddess had come down from the heavens to embrace her with the heavenly warmth that would take away all her problems and leave her feeling nothing but sweet, sweet bliss.

_"No! Pull yourself together, Amy_." She marched up the stairs taking two or more steps at a time so as to get to the upper floors faster_. "You've got enough problems on your plate. You don't need to add an obsession over this girl."_ Amy groaned because no matter how hard she tried to convince herself to let this go and move on to other things. But her mind much like a drug addict needing their next fix, would slowly shift its thoughts back onto Taylor and her own desires to return to the temple of perfection that was her body.

"_Oh god, I need a distraction quick before I slowly drive myself insane!" _At that moment, like the universe had finally decided to show the poor healer some mercy for once Amy's phone had suddenly begun to ring, the sound echoing throughout the empty hallway that she was currently occupying. To Amy, it sounds like her salvation from this horrible mess that she had found herself in.

"Yes, hello?" Asked Amy Dallon after quickly retrieving her phone from the inner pocket of her robes and was now holding it to her ear.

"Hiya sis, it's me." Amy smiled when she heard her sister Victoria Dallon on the other side of the line.

"Hey, Vicky what's up." The heroine already had a sneaky suspicion as to why her sister called at this time of day. She properly ruffled up a thug too hard and now wanted her to fix them up before dropping them off at the police station. Which would usually annoy her no end but right now, she would take any excuse to leave the hospital right about now.

"Hum, well, I might have gone a little overboard and broke some E88 guy's legs, and I might need you to heal him." Amy sighed, almost hating being right about her sister's actions. But if it got her out of here, then she would take it though Vicky was going to get the verbal lashing of a lifetime when she saw her, because this was the fourteenth guy this week whose legs she's broken since her recent break up with Dean. Though past experience told her that they would be back together soon, it still doesn't mean that it still didn't annoy her since, at this stage, Amy was forced to clean up all of her beloved sister's messes until the two love birds reunited. Vicky finally calms down enough to not potentially cripple the poor thugs, unfortunate enough to run into her sister.

"Send me the coordinates Vicky, and I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Sweet, do you want me to pick you up? because this guy ain't going nowhere any time soon."

"No thanks, Vicky," The worlds greatest healer replied with a smile at her sister's offer for a ride to the thug whose ass she had kicked. "I'd rather walk there since works been kind of stressful lately, and I could use a good walk right now to clear my head." That and she wanted to use the walk to give her time to force her traitorous mind away from a certain patient whose heavenly aura was like a drug that she just couldn't get enough of.

"Well, okay, if you're sure."

"Yeah, I'm sure Vicky see you soon," Amy said before hanging up on her sister.

_"Well, I better get over there before Vicky decides to do something stupid out of boredom_." Chucking tiredly at her sister's antics. Amy walked back down the stairs and headed for the hospital's main front entrance while taking extra care to avoid the area of the hospital where Taylor was staying. Because she seriously didn't need the temptation of seeking out the girl's warm aura or taking one of those heavenly flowers that radiated a weaker version of what Taylor had within her body.

"_You know you can give her your phone number just to stay in touch_." Her brain once again whispered its traitorous words into her ear. But like a true hero, she ignored its dark influence. Yes, she was ignoring it, and she defiantly wasn't writing down her phone number on a spare piece of paper that she usually kept in her robe pocket. To hand over to her fellow teenager as soon as she was done with helping Vicky with her current thug problem. Because that would be giving in to temptation, and Amy Dallon was a person who wouldn't fall that easily to the sweet temptation of Taylor Hebert's heavenly warmth nor her perfect body nope not within this lifetime.

"_Brain, stop trying to tempt me!" _Amy mentally hissed at her mind while walking out of the front entrance of the hospital. Having thankfully avoided going though the hallway that Taylor was occupying and thus avoiding the temptation of going to see her.

"_**Never!" **_Her mind screamed back at her like a madwoman, and that was how the heroine Panacea spent the rest of her day. Listening to her own mind trying to corrupt her into staying as close to the Hebert girl as was physically possible and fixing the mess that Vicky had created without their mother finding out about it. All in all, Amy would have placed the day in the top five of her most tiring days to date though the young mousy healer had a dreaded suspicion that things in the future will be even more tiring then they were right now, and that wasn't' a prospect that she was really looking forward to not one bit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Time Skip Two Weeks Later, The Hebert Residents. **

"_Ah, what a lovely day to hang some laundry_." Happily, thought Taylor as she walked out of her home's back door. She was wearing a pair of bright blue trousers and a sweater with a pair of white bunny slippers covering her clawed feet while also effortlessly carrying a heavy basket of freshly washed laundry. A jolly tone left her lips as she, with a slight spring in her step, made her way towards the washing line that hung right outside her house's backyard.

Taylor couldn't help but silently reflect on what has happened since she had awoken two weeks ago within her hospital bed.

For the first week, the However, Okami had to spend her days within the hospital as the many doctors that were taking care of her had insisted that she be kept there for observation until they know for sure that she was completely healthy. At first, it had been beyond boring just doing test after test to check to see if she was recovering from the locker incident properly. Thankfully that had changed on the third day when Jane, bless her soul, had noticed her slowly mounting boredom and had decided to take her for a tour of the hospital. An offer which she had gladly excepted though unbeknown to her at the time, her agreeing to the like would earn her the title as the sunshine of the Brockton hospital. Taylor joyfully interacted with other patients making them laugh or just smile at her playful antics.

_"I made so many new friends_." Giddily thought Taylor while placing the wash basket down onto the ground near the washing line, whilst remembering all the new friends she had made at the hospital from young to old. It didn't matter to her who they were as she had befriended them all bringing joy to everyone who wanted to interact with her. Not even the doctors and nurses were spared from her as they too fell victim to her newly gained charm and sunny personality. When the time had come for her to leave, the hospital doctors, nurses, patients one and all, had come to ask her if she could stay just a little bit longer as they didn't want their sunshine to leave them. This had deeply touched the young Okami that so many people had grown to care about her like that. Still, Taylor knew that she had to go home with her farther and so she had sadly left the hospital though not without promising that she would come back and visit her newly gained friends when she had the time.

"_I even got Panacea's phone number!" _The giddiness in her heart grew as she recalled how the healer had given her a piece of paper with her number on it. After the crowd of people who had tried to convince her to stay at the hospital had dispersed after she had kindly and very politely told them that she couldn't stay there.

"_Though Panacea was acting really strange when she gave me her number." _It was true as the miracle healer had been acting real twitchy around her ever since she had first met the mousy heroine. Who had also been actively avoiding her whenever she possibly could and never making any eye contact when they ran into each other in the hospital's hallways. Heck, the world-famous hero had just thrown the paper at her to avoid skin contact while telling her to call her immediately if there was anything wrong with her health. Honestly, Taylor just couldn't understand why the famous cape was acting so strangely. She couldn't, likerely, on her abilities to help her in figuring it out. Because when her past seeing power had tried to see into the mousy girls past, all Taylor saw from Panacea was nothing more than a blank space like something was preventing her from seeing the Parahumans past, and it wasn't just her. Any Parahuman that the young goddess meet had come up as a blank to her past seeing ability as the same thing had happened when she had meet Panacea's sister Glory girl. When the blonde heroine had come that one time to visit her sister on the fifth day of her stay at the hospital.

Anyway, as for what has been happening for the second week, she had just been staying inside the house talking to her farther on what she wanted to do now that she had superpowers. After many discussions, debates, and long into the night arguments, Taylor had finally managed to dwindle her farther's will until he had finally agreed to let her be a solo vigilante. Though at first, he had wanted her to join the local wards, but she had quickly reminded him that thanks to the doctors finding out that she had no Corona nor Gamma Pollentia, the PRT wouldn't believe that she was a Parahuman no matter what she said or did. If anything, they would most likely think that she had been mastered and given powers as a result, like that one cape named Teacher, who is currently locked up within the superhuman prison known throughout the world as the Birdcage.

_"Of course, I didn't tell dad that the real reason that I was so against the wards was because I don't want to deal with any teenaged drama_." Thought the she-wolf, as she began to peg up the wet clothes onto the washing line. "_I mean, I already have to deal with Emma and the other kids at school. I don't want to add super teenage dramas to my life." _When the last article of clothing was hanged upon the line, Taylor took a step back to admire her handy work only to frown as she noticed that something was missing from the scene before her golden eyes.

"_The sun has disappeared_." She quickly realized while looking upwards towards the sky, only to see many large white clouds lazily drift across the bright blue sky, and while the fledgeling Okami usually liked to sometimes lazily lay on the grass to watch as the clouds roll by. They were, unfortunately, now blocking the sun from shining its rays upon the wet clothes that hung innocently on the line.

"_Grrr, if only there were a way to get those clouds out the way, then the clothes could dry so much faster." _Like a switch had been flipped within her very soul, the tip of Taylor's tail suddenly blackened like she had dipped it in a pot of ink. As if by an unknown instinct, the she-wolf pointed her inky tail towards the heavens while the surroundings around her had suddenly turned grey, and time itself seemed to have stopped entirely like the whole world was eagerly waiting for whatever action the young Okami was about to perform. However, Taylor remained unaware of what was going on around her. As she slowly began to draw a circle in the air with her tail and much to her disbelief a colossal inky circle was being drawn in the sky like she was a grand painter, and the very heaven themselves were her canvas.

"_Holy shit, am I doing that?"_ Her golden eyes were wide with disbelief as she slowly completed the circle. If she could have looked at herself right now, she would have noticed that her tattoos were glowing brightly with the sun symbol on her forehead shining the brightest of them all. "_Because if I am, then this is awesome!" _she smiled at the nearly complete ink drawing, and although she knew that she should be freaking out right about now, Taylor just couldn't bring up the feeling to the forefront of her mind. Like something within the depths of her soul was telling her that there was nothing to fear with what she was doing. So Taylor just happily continued to draw the circle in the sky lazily, and once the two points of the circle meet each other, something truly miraculous happened.

An explosion of light enveloped the sky in such intensity that everyone in the city had to close their eyes unless they want to go blind from the intensity of the light that had suddenly come into existence. Everyone that is except for the Okami that had caused the light to be born in the first place as Taylor could only watch in stupefied awe as the circle she had drawn magically transformed into the very sun itself. The newly summoned orb in the sky, unaware of its masters awe, just shinned its benevolent heavenly rays down upon the wet clothes that Taylor had hung out to dry.

"Taylor, what happened?" The white-haired teen turned her face away from the summoned sun and towards the backyard porch where her farther was currently standing. "Wait, is that the sun?!" Much like she had been doing, her father stared at the celestial body with undisguised awe, and with that came the sudden realization that she had done what should have been the impossible she had called forth the sun itself. Much to her mounting embarrassment, she had done it to dry her family's laundry because she just didn't want to wait for the clouds to disperse to allow the sun to come back naturally to dry the clothes.

"I didn't do it." Taylor suddenly yelled, having instinctively gone into teenage get out of trouble mode, and just like a child who got caught trying to steal from the kitchens cookie jar, she had blurted out the most basic and well-used excuse in the book. Unfortunately, all her excuse had seemed to do was help her dad to put the pieces of the puzzle together as he looked away from the sun, which was still hanging where she had summoned it. He stared at her in sheer disbelief at the incredible achievement that she just accomplished. Granted, it was done by complete accident, but that still doesn't mean that it wasn't any less impressive. After all, no Parahuman or Endbringer could have done what she had just done well, none that she knew of at any rate.

"Taylor kiddo." Her father said slowly while staring at her in shock. His lips turned upwards in amusement. "Did you really summon the sun to do your laundry for you?" The Okami felt her cheeks redden as she had indeed done just that it was so embarrassing that her wolf ears had flattened on top of her head, and a small whine had left the back of her throat because it was really embarrassing. I mean, come on first, a new wolfish look, then learning she could create flowers out of nowhere and now this summoning of the sun itself. What's next was she gonna find out she was some kind of goddess or something.

"I didn't mean to do it. It just sort of happened." Finally, admitted the fledgeling goddess after a moment of silence while her farther just stared amused at his daughter.

"Just what didn't you mean to do exactly kiddo the summoning the sun part or using it to help dry your laundry?"

"Both." Immediately responded Taylor. Who once again whined at how embarrassing this whole situation was.

"~Weeeeell~" her old man dragged out the words while taking a sip of coffee that he had brought out with him. "Since no one was hurt with your little laundry stunt I suppose that I can't really ground you now, can I?" he casually asked while taking yet another sip of his coffee, a small content sigh leaving his mouth as the black liquid made its way down his throat.

"Right because that would be wrong to ground me for a small unintentional mistake like this one, right?"

"Agreed," her dad said with a smile. "So enjoy your four-day grounding, kiddo." Taylor's jaw dropped at what her father had just said while the man in question had turned around and calmly walked back into the house.

"Wait, but you just agreed that it would be wrong to ground me!" Taylor yelled while running after her dad, her fluffy tail still stained with black ink as she gave chase.

"Another persons' wrong is another persons' right, kiddo." She could just feel his smug smile from within the house. "Besides intentional or not, you could have hurt a lot of people if you had summoned the sun any closer to the earth like you had just done a minute ago." He was right; she knew that, but it still wouldn't stop her from trying to get out of being grounded for four days.

"But that's not fair!" Taylor whined, "I'm supposed to be going out tonight for my first time, heroing." She pouted while her checks puffed outward in the most adorable manner that she could possibly manage, hoping that her cuteness would change her dad's mind.

"Life's not fair, kiddo." Was her father's come back to her whining. "Besides, you and I both agreed that you won't go out trying to be a hero until you've taken some self-defense lessons." The reminder of their agreement caused the white-haired Okami to sigh in defeat as it was true that one of the terms that her farther had demanded before he allowed her to pursue hero work was to first find a trainer to teach her self defense. Because no daughter of his was apparently going to fight crime until she could properly kick their assess across the city's boat graveyard to the boardwalk and back again.

"Your right." Agreed Taylor, who had finally caught up with her dad who was now in the living room casually sitting on his favourite lounge chair. "I guess I should start looking to see if there are any affordable dojos that are inside the city." She grimaced because that meant that she would have to use that old fossil of a computer that was inside her farther's study. That old thing usually took hours before it could even give her anything useful, and that didn't even cover the horrible internet connection that made the family computer even more worthless than it already was. This was why Taylor always went into the city's local library to use their computers as they were more modern and much faster than her own one.

"You do that, kiddo I'm just gonna stay here and enjoy my coffee." She glared over her shoulder as her dad just smugly raised his mug towards her in a teasing salute. "Just don't stay up too long remember your grounded." He laughed uproariously at his own joke getting a small growl from the Okami and as she left the room to head towards her farther's study. Taylor silently vowed to get her old man back for this, and lucky for her; she had plenty of ways to embarrass him thanks to his memories that she saw two weeks ago.

_"Oh yes, my vengeance will be swift and bloody old man just you wait_." Sniggering, like some old cartoon villain Taylor entered her dad's study and booted up the family's old computer. While she began her long tiresome search for a good affordable place to learn self-defense, neither she nor her dad had noticed that small blobs of ink had been falling out of her tails tip ever since she had first called upon the sun. The blobs silently hit the ground with a splat though they didn't stay there for long as the droplets of ink quietly moved out of sight and disappeared through the cracks in the floorboards.

"_Hum, this looks good, Onigiri's school for the martial arts." _Taylor hummed as she read the summary of the website for the Onigiri martial arts school that she had stumbled across after spending hours searching for a good enough dojo to learn from. _"Its close by affordable, and its teacher Onigiri the man who the school was named after, has won every single martial art tournament that he has ever participated in." _The fledgeling Okami was very impressed by the man's feats and the more she read, the more confident she was that she had found her Teacher.

"_Welp I guess I can go visit the dojo tomorrow with dad. That's if he would allow me to go, what with being grounded and all." _Making a mental note to talk to her dad about going to the dojo tomorrow before they go to bed tonight. She quickly writes down the address to the dojo, and once she had the address on paper, she shut off the computer and headed off to go talk to her father about taking a trip to Onigiri's place to see if the man lived up to what he had advertised about himself.

**Meanwhile, on the Rig.**

The Rig the flouting movable base that served as the real seat of power for Brockton bay's branch of the protectorate and not the offices that were located near the center of the city as those were more for show than anything else. However, Either training or in case of the Tinkers working on some convoluted project or another that could help their teammates in the field. Though any device created had to go through rigorous exams and testing before they are approved to be used; unfortunately, it usually takes months before any such approval was signed.

But today, something different was happening as an important meeting was going on between the stern director of PRT ENE Emily Piggot and the local team of superheroes. Lead by the socially awkward Tinker hero Armsmaster.

**Main briefing room. **

"So, we still have nothing on our elusive Parahuman that healed miss Hebert?" Calmly asked Emily Piggot. An obese blonde-haired woman with steel grey eyes that could put the fear of the devil into the souls of her subordinates with nothing but her glare alone. Who was currently staring at the group of hero's seated around her within the briefing room. The hero's in question except for Armsmaster and Miss Militia were squirming in their seats in discomfort which they should be because Piggot wasn't happy with the results they had managed to gain thus far into the case. Which was to say that there were no bloody clues since the cape that they were searching for hadn't made an appearance since saving that poor Hebert girl from her own locker.

"That is correct, director." Calmly stated the leader of her branches team of Parahumans. However, she didn't like the man that much, she could appreciate that he would always bluntly deliver any news to her as truthfully as possible. As it honestly saved her a great deal of time. When her second in the local PRT hierarchy didn't want nor desire to be caught up in the political bullshit that most, if not all, her fellow directors tried to feed her daily when it came to getting cape reinforcements, which were always denied thanks to the aforementioned political bullshit.

Piggot pinched the bridge of her nose while silently counting backwards from ten and continuously reminding herself that she couldn't yell at them for this, because it wasn't their fault that they couldn't find any clues to help them find the mysterious cape since it looked like whoever it was had cleaned up after themselves remarkably well. Leaving behind absolutely no evidence that they had existed except for the healed girl and her melted locker plus a few hundred thousand bug corpses.

"Okay fine," Piggot removed her hand from her face allowing her steel grey eyes to once again focus upon the hero team before her. "If we don't currently have any new leads, then let us instead focus on what we do know about this unknown cape." Hopefully, if they reviewed all that they knew about the elusive cape, they may stumble upon a clue to help them find the mysterious Parahuman before any of the city's gangs did first. Because healing capes were rare, and Piggot didn't want any of the gangs to get their dirty little hands on them because that could easily disturb the fragile balance of power, which was the only thing from keeping the city from erupting like a very violent volcano.

"Well, we know that they first appeared a little over two weeks ago when they saved young miss Hebert from her locker, which was stuffed with deadly contaminants," began Armsmaster. Who was the only person that Piggot knew of, who could make a young girls suffering sound like an every day boring statistic report. "The incident was reported by an old janitor of the school who was doing some routine cleaning when he had stumbled upon the Hebert girl inside the girls' locker room completely naked. She was surrounded by charred insect corpses." The Tinker paused, no doubt reading some report on the hub inside of his helmet. "The locker itself was melted into scrap metal though further reports show that the surrounding lockers were left untouched by whatever it was that melted the toxic waste-filled locker." With his report given, the armoured hero went silent, allowing his fellow heroes to take the floor if they wanted to.

"Well, it sounds like our mysterious friend is a blaster to me," said Assault the team's resident striker and husband to Battery. "I mean, there's not much else that I know of that can melt a steel locker like its a cheese fondue."

"Agreed." Came the slightly muffled voice of Miss militia who had been silent up until now. "Though are we sure that miss Hebert isn't the cape that we are looking for?" Inquired the weapon changing heroine.

"We have already looked into it." Answered Piggot, who was shuffling around some paperwork. "With the permission of the girl's father, we, with the help of the bay's general hospital staff and new wave's resident healer Panacea, have determined 100% that Taylor Hebert does not possess neither a Corona Pollentia or its smaller Gamma counterpart." Hadn't that thrown a monkey wrench into their investigation. Since Hebert was their only suspect, well, she had been until they found out that she couldn't possibly be a Parahuman after all. Like the old saying goes, no Corona nor Gamma no powers.

"Couldn't she have some kind of stranger effect that's hiding her Corona and Gamma from us?" Asked the team's mover Velocity, who knew what he was proposing sounded wired, but there were far stranger powers that have been documented around the world. Some of which were still currently active right now, like that one guy who could control only ketchup who was currently living in Texas. However, for the life of him, Velocity just couldn't remember the guy's name.

"That would be impossible Velocity." Calmly spoke up Armsmaster before anyone else could, thus gaining the complete attention of everyone in the room. "Because if miss Hebert had such ability, then it could have given the following logical limitations associated with Parahuman powers. She could have only have fooled either Panacea or the doctor brain scanner, not both, especially not when she had been unconscious at the time that the scans had been done." Said the armoured Tinker while calmly explaining why Miss Hebert having a stranger effect, wouldn't have hidden her Corona or Gamma from the scans.

"Before you even say it Assault." Armsmaster continued while giving his fellow hero an emotionless stare. "Yes, I'm well aware that to most people Parahuman powers, especially those belonging to the people in the Tinker classification, are perceived to be as you would no doubt call it magical bullshit." The red armoured striker closed his mouth with a click as his eyes that were hidden behind his visor stared wide-eyed at his leader. Surprised that he could have figured out what he was about to say before even he had thought about it.

"What? does your fancy armour now have some kind of future predicting program installed into it or something?" Asked Assault, he wasn't even asking as a joke because knowing his boss like he did. He could have very well created and installed something like a future predicting program into his armour.

"No." Bluntly replied the leader of the hero's as he turned his head to face Piggot. "Your just that predictable." Sniggers sounded around the room as Assault stared at his boss in disbelief before a smirk was upon his face.

"Did you just use sarcasm?"

"I don't do sarcasm, Assault."

"I'm proud of you, big guy." Assault smiled and the only thing stopping him from reaching over the table and patting his boss on the back was the knowledge that if he even tried that, then Armsmaster would snap his wrist. But still keeping within the spirit of the thought, he instead mentally pictured himself giving his boss that well deserved pat on the back for finally developing the ability known as sarcasm. Hell, give it a few more years, and maybe his good old leader may someday develop into a real boy just like that one story about the wooden puppet boy Pinocchio or something like that.

"If you two are finally finished I would like to…." Piggot began only to pause as the briefing rooms main office phone near her left-hand side suddenly began to ring its bland ringtone which vibrated throughout the room. Piggot glared at it like the small piece of machinery had done some kind of heinous deed to her, and worse, had gotten away with it.

"Yes." Coldly answered Piggot after she had pressed the phones accept call button.

"Director Piggot ma'am," the obese director's secretary's voice came flying out of the phone thanks to Piggot putting the device onto loudspeaker. "I'm sorry to disturb you, especially after you gave me explicit instructions not to, but we have an emergency on our hands!"

'What is this emergency." Piggot calmly asked because she was the leader of the PRT ENE, and she must never under any circumstance sound like she didn't know what to do or how to act, as that would demoralize the various men and women who were counting on her to lead them through any crises. But as soon as her secretary launched into what it was that she had deemed dangerous enough to break her orders of not contacting her whist holding this very meeting. Piggot felt her right eye twitch, and her anger slowly rising with each word that left the women's mouth, who she had hired to help her manage her already busy schedule.

"Ms Mercury," Piggot's voice was as cold as an arctic tundra. "I did believe that when I first hired you that I told you that if you ever came to me with a false report or a prank that would result in me wasting my time, then I would fire you on the spot." The directors grey eyes glared at the phone as if her stare alone could set the thing on fire. "So for your sake, you had better not be wasting my time with this nonsense about the sun disappearing and then reappearing in a different part of the city."

"I'm not director ma'am. It's all over the news, and reports about the event keep flooding in from all over the city into are hotline!" Ms. Mercury explained as quickly as she could as she didn't want to lose her job over this.

"Amsmaster?" Piggot asked the Tinker who she knew was always connected to the local major news networks via his helmet, so if anyone could tell her if her secretary was telling the truth, it would be him. Though if the women had indeed been lying just now, then it would be former secretary by the end of the day, and Piggot would personally kick the women though the door on her way out.

"She's telling the truth," Armsmaster told Piggot though his tone was carrying a noticeable hint of disbelief to it. "I've just got an update from my armours computer, which has been tracking local news for anything which may need our personal attention." The leader of the bay city's hero's frowned while placing two of his fingers next to his helmet right where his left ear should be. "From what I'm getting from the stations, the sun had suddenly vanished one second then reappeared the next in a completely different place than where it had been before."

"I see, thank you, Armsmaster." The director thanked the man for his help, then focused back on the phone. "It would seem I owe you an apology, Ms Mercury." Piggot's tone was noticeable warmer then it was before. Because Piggot, while a stubborn woman by nature she wasn't above acknowledging her faults nor was she the kind of person to deny when she had made a mistake like snapping at Ms mercury before she could confirm whether or not her report had been true.

"Its no problem, ma'am." Sincerely replied her secretary from the other side of the phone, and Piggot made a note to give the women a small bonus to her next paycheck.

"Well, keep up the good work Ms Mercury," the director told her subordinate before hanging up the phone.

"Well, what are you lot standing around here for?" Piggot glared at the hero's in the room. "Go out there and find out what the hell is going on." She ordered the superhumans while pointing at the exit, a clear, a sign as any that she wanted them gone from the briefing room as quickly as humanly posable and find out what has been going on in her city.

"You heard her team lets move out." Ordered Amsmaster before he ran out of the room, followed quickly by the rest of his teammates. Dauntless being the last one to leave, politely closed the door on his way out, leaving the director alone with her thoughts.

"_Things just keep getting better these days, don't they?" _The survivor of Ellisburg sarcastically thought to herself while opening a hidden compartment underneath the table, which contained a bottle of expensive wine that her deputy director Renick had tried to hide from her. However, the joke was on him because she knew exactly where all his alcoholic stashes were throughout the whole Rig. Now she was going to help herself to some of it to help relieve some of the pent up stress that has been plaguing her for the past few weeks.

"_Welp here's to you, Renick!" _Thought Piggot with a small chuckle before taking a large gulp of the bottle's contents. _"Hum, this is the good stuff_." The leader of the local branch of the PRT concluded while thinking about what has happened so far, and truthfully she didn't like the series of events so far because there was now an unknown running around her city. Piggot always hated unknowns since they always, in some shape or form, cause unending trouble for Brockton. That didn't even cover the headache that the whole sun thing was going to create. As Piggot could already see her phone line going off the hook as other directors called her office or home, none stop to demand answers. That she couldn't even give them, after all, how could she answer their questions when even she, the director of Brockton, hadn't even the foggiest clue on what the hell was going on recently.

_"I think that I'm gonna have to raid a few more of Renick's stashes before this whole madness can be sorted out_." The director took one last greedy gulp of wine before recorking the bottle and returning it to the hidden table compartment.

"_I'd better get going heaven knows what kind of disaster could be happening right now without me there to try and stop it." _Rising out of the chair with a pained grunt, the PRT leader headed towards the door, each step just as painful as the last one thanks to the wounds she had suffered at Dillsburg.

_"Still, I can't help but think that our new elusive cape is responsible for this madness." _If the unknown cape was as she suspected involved with this whole sun mess, then they have seriously just gone up by a truly massive scale in the Parahuman danger classification levels. Along with finding them an alpha level priority because if they could move the sun itself, then the damage they could inflict on the world could be beyond anything else she had ever known. Yes, that did include the Endbringers since Piggot was absolutely sure that the three walking disasters couldn't move celestial bodies from one point to another in just mere seconds.

"_Add on to the fact that we can't even find anything about this cape shows that he/she is either very lucky or is a criminal mastermind with some kind of end goal in mind." _Honestly, Piggot believed it was the latter rather than the former because no one on earth bet with any type of common sense would just try moving the sun without some kind of game plan in mind. Didn't that nicely sum up the general level of craziness in the world when Piggot could think like that without any kind of sarcasm.

_"Still when I find whoever it was that just moved the sun, I'm going to give them a verbal lashing of a lifetime on just why moving celestial bodies is a stupid and generally bad idea." _Of course, she was still going to recruit the person as her boss, the head dictator Rebecca Brown wouldn't settle for anything less from Piggot. _"Well, there's no use griping about it better to just get on with it." _With a small groan of pain as the phantom pains from her missing kidneys started acting up again, Piggot opened the door heading towards her office in order to start thinking up plans to capture the ever-elusive cape who was clearly a mastermind. Though unbeknownst to the obese women, the aforementioned _'mastermind' _was currently in her room laying on her bed and adorably pouting at the fact that she had just been grounded for four days.

For the sake of the director's sanity, it was probably for the best that she wasn't aware of that little detail.


	4. Chapter 4

**The next day at the Onigiri martial arts dojo.**

"So this is the place relatively kiddo?" Danny asked his daughter while curiously staring at the two-story building that had been clearly modelled after a traditional Japanese dojo, with a peaceful zen garden complete with its own pound. With its own white and black koi fish swimming peacefully around in its watery depths. The pound was occupying the front of the building, which was fenced off by three-meter-high stone walls with tiled roofing, and the only entrance that he could see was the round doorway carved into the stone itself. All in all, the place looked fit for a grandmaster of the martial arts, which was appropriate, really seeing as they were here in search for one to help teach his little Owl how to defend herself while out and about being a hero.

"Yep, it says so right here on the map." Danny turned towards his daughter with an amused look as he saw that his little Owl still had her face literally buried into the aforementioned map while her tail excitedly swished back and forth in the air. Honestly, it had surprised the farther of the young Okami that his daughter hadn't accidentally hit anyone with her tail on the walk here. Though given what he knew about Taylor's powers, it wouldn't have mattered even if she did wind up hitting someone because the person or persons, depending on the situation, would have just brushed off the whole thing as just a strong gust of wind.

"Well here's hoping that this is the right place." The Hebert patriarch face turned mischievous. "After all we wouldn't want a repeat of you getting us lost again like that one time." For the first time since they had left the house, his little Owl removed her face from the map to growl at him like a fearsome wolf too bad the terrifying image that she was going for was ruined by her cutely pouting at him kind of like a puppy that had its chew toy taken away.

"Daaaaad, that was one time, and I was six when it happened." The red tattooed girl let out a pitiful whine as she remembered that time when she, in a fit of childishness, had demanded of her parents to allow her to be the one to give them the directions to go to a newly opened general shopping mall. Like the loving parents, they were her mum and dad had given her the map and asked her which way to go. As a result, they had spent the rest of the day getting lost in the city. It wasn't all bad though as they had visited many different shops and even had delicious ice cream on the way back home they still never did manage to find the mall that day but all in all, it hadn't been that bad it was even kind of like their family's own little adventure.

"Sure, kiddo, whatever you say." Danny laughed when his daughter released an even bigger and longer whine at his teasing. "Still we better head inside and meet this Onigiri guy." He gently patted Taylor on the head before walking through the archway.

"Hey, wait for me, dad!" Yelped Taylor while quickly pocketing the map whilst also running after her dad, who had a few seconds head start on her though thankfully, it didn't take that long to catch up with her father. Together they slide open the shoji paper door that worked as the front entrance to the dojo itself and walked inside though not without first removing their shoes like the sign near the front entrance had requested.

"This is a rather nice place." Complimented the Okami as she rather liked how it was designed with the small antechamber having tall bamboo trees placed on both sides of the room. In comparison, the flooring resembled a sandy zen garden like the one outside though minus the koi pond. "_Mr Onigiri must really like zen gardens_." It was a natural conclusion to make Taylor thought as both zen gardens, the one outside and the one inside was well maintained with the bamboo looking freshly cut and watered whilst the sand looked recently raked.

"Why thank you," an old withered voice suddenly spoke from behind the farther daughter pair, causing them both to jump into the air in fright. "I personally designed the whole place myself." Spinning on the balls of their feet, the two Hebert's turned around towards the entrance to see an old man wearing a kendo uniform though it was slightly modified to have flames dancing at the bottom of the white gi and his hakama. "Though I highly doubt you're here just to listen to an old man talk about his choices of interior design." With an amused chuckle, the white and grey-haired old man who Taylor had to admit had an awesome moustache walked past them while using a bamboo sword of all things as his walking cane.

"_That's strange. I can't see his life." _Taylor curiously eyed the old man as he slowly made his way across the room. It wasn't like the Parahmans that she had met so far because while they were nothing more than a blank space when her ability was active. The old man before her was different as he, instead of an empty space, was like a shining beacon of blue energy that shrouded him from her power.

"Hum, are you Onigiri?" The patriarch of the Hebert clan asked whilst secretly wondering how on earth did the wrinkly old man manage to sneak up on him and his daughter. Especially his daughter because those wolf ears on top of her head weren't just for show as his little girl could usually hear a pin drop from the other side of the house which made sneaking up on her rather difficult yet this old guy had just done it with seemingly little to no effort.

"I am," replied Onigiri, who, after reaching the end of the room where there was another set of shoji doors which lead deeper into the dojo, turned around and faced the duo whilst placing his hands on top of the hilt of his bamboo sword. "What brings you two strangers here to my humble little dojo today?" Inquired the martial arts master who was slightly leaning on his sword though Taylor had noticed that unlike a normal bamboo sword, the old man's one didn't bend when he applied his weight to it. It just stood straight and proud, unlike its owner, who was hunched over and looking relatively weak and feeble at the moment.

"We're here to see if you can teach my daughter how to defend herself." Answered Danny, having gone straight to the point as to why they had come visiting Onigiri. "You see, gang activity has been rising lately, and with the whole sun incident yesterday, things have only gotten worse as the gangs are tirelessly trying to find the person responsible for the whole mess." Taylor winced since it was her fault that the gangs have been causing more trouble as of late, but that was why she wanted to start learning how to fight as soon as possible. So when the time finally came for her to go out into the city as a hero, she would be more than ready to try fixing the problems she had accidentally caused for the people of Brockton bay.

"Hum, I see," said Onigiri while removing his left hand from the sword hilt to contemplatively stroke his shoulder-length white moustache. "I understand and can help you with her training" Onigiri's black charcoal eyes steeled themselves, giving the ancient man a rather fierce look. "But understand this, young lady." The martial arts master pointed a boney finger at Taylor, who, without her mental input, had straightened her back to stand at attention. "The martial arts aren't about just hitting someone with fancy moves until they stop moving." A disgruntled look momentarily cross his face, and Taylor, for a second, wondered just how many people had come in here for just such a reason. "The martial arts are about self-discipline mastering one's body and mind along with the environment around them but most importantly." Onigiri eyes began to burn with a fiery passion, "It's about protecting those who can't protect themselves because what's the point of learning the grand teachings of martial arts if you don't use them to help others when they are in dire need."

"I understand sir." She completely did because that was why she was here to learn how to defend herself from any kind of threats and to protect the people of the city by using martial arts as a means to master herself. The more she interacted with the wise old man before her, the more sure Taylor was that she had picked the right man to lead her down the path to being the best hero that she could ever possibly be.

"We shall see if your conviction holds true in the future." Simply replied Onigiri, who turned his attention back onto her farther. "My fee is two hundred and fifty a month on which day of that particular month you decide to pay me and at what time is completely up to you to decide." Calmly explained the master of the dojo about his training fee to the head of the Hebert household. Who was staring in open disbelief over the far older man's flexible not to mention generous terms on when and how he wanted to be paid for training his daughter.

"That's fair." It was way more than fair, and both men knew it, but Danny wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially since it was going to help in keeping his little girl safe from potential harm.

"That it is." The withered old man nodded in agreement towards Danny before turning to stare at Taylor. "As for you, young girl, you will address me as sensei from now on, understand." His charcoal eyes burned intensely into the she wolfs golden ones, and the young Okami returned the stare with one of equal intensity of her own. Hoping to show her newly gained sensei that she was determined to not only grow but flourish under his tutelage.

"Yes, sensei, I understand."

"Good." Onigiri nodded in approval his moustached mouth widening into a smile. "But before we can get started, there's a question that I would like to ask of the two of you?" Both Hebert's stared at the old man, curious as to what kind of question he would ask of them.

"Go ahead, sensei," said Taylor while her wolf ears twitched in curiosity over what her sensei was about to ask of them.

"How many people currently know about your wolf-like form and red tattoos?" The question and the absolute seriousness in her sensei's tone caused both Hebert's to blink their eyes in shocked bewilderment.

"Wait a minute are you saying that you can truly see me sensei?" Taylor asked in surprise while her dad was silently inching his way towards the paper front door, ready to open it and bolt with his daughter in case the old man turned violent.

"Of course I can see you girl I'm not blind." Calmly retorted her sensei while turning to glare at her father in annoyance. "As for you, Mr Hebert, you can now stop trying to sneak your way to the front entrance." He snapped at the leader of the dockworkers union who froze in place his right hand about an inch away from the sliding door. "I'm not going to hurt either of you I just wanted to know how many people know about your daughter's true form and if you wanted me to keep it a secret from other people that's all." He explained while grunting in annoyance over her dad's antics.

"So you knew my daughter wasn't normal from the moment that we arrived here?" Questioned Danny returning to his aforementioned daughter's side while said daughter just tilted her head sideways in puzzlement as her wolfs ears twitched in different directions.

"Well normals really just a matter of opinion." Replied Onigiri while scratching his bold head. "But yes I have been able to see your daughter's true form from the very moment since you've first stepped inside my dojo," he told them with honesty dripping from his every word. "Still you haven't told me if anyone else knows about this or if you want me to keep quiet about it yet." He gently reminded them about his earlier question getting the farther and daughter duo to look at each other a silent conversation going between them via their eyes.

"Well, no one knows about what I look like now except for my dad." Taylor was the one to answer after having her mental conversation with her father. "As for you keeping it a secret yes please because I really don't want anyone else to know about me."

"Don't worry, girl, your secrets safe with me." Reassured her sensei who walked over and rubbed her softly on the head right in between the wolf ears causing her to let out a softly purr in pleasure which caused the two men in the room to chuckle at the sound she was making.

"If you don't mind," Taylor began as her sensei removed his hand from her head something which saddened her a bit since she really enjoyed having her head rubbed. "Since you've asked a question from me." The Okami scratched her left cheek while her ear perked upwards. "Can I asked one of my own?" Onigiri stroked his moustache for a moment before giving a nod of consent.

"Sure I don't see why not ask away girl."

"How are you so calm about all this." Onigiri raised a slivery eyebrow "I mean, doesn't my appearance freak you out even little bit?" he chuckled amused at his young students question.

"It's simple, really." The head of the dojo answered while slowly tapping the tip of his sword on the sand that made up the floor beneath them. "I just don't care," he told them getting disbelieving looks in return.

"You don't care?" Slowly repeated Taylor like she couldn't really believe what had just come out of her sensei's mouth.

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because your my student," he told Taylor like it should have explained everything about why he didn't care about her appearance. "As your sensei, it is my job to look after you and help you grow not only at martial arts but as a person as well." His aged eyes shinned with honesty. "Plus I have always believed that a person, regardless of their age sex race or spiritual beliefs. So long as they upheld to the same principles and ideals of this dojo, then they will always find themselves welcomed here with an open heart and a warm greeting."

Taylor just stared at her sensei after he had finished telling her why her appearance didn't bother him and honestly she felt great respect towards him far more than she had for any of the Winslow teachers that was for sure. If only more teachers at school had been like him, then maybe Emma's bullying campaign against her wouldn't have reached the point that it did.

"Thank you." She spoke softly her words carrying the gratitude she felt towards the old martial arts master as he didn't reject her as a student because of her wolfish form.

"There's nothing to thank me for girl." Her sensei gently brushed away her words of gratitude. "I'm your sensei its to be expected of me after all." He turned and walked over to the other side of the room where the other paper door laid closed. "But we've wasted enough time as it is." Once he stood at the paper doors, he placed a withered old hand onto it and then gently slid it open. "We've only got a few more hours of daylight left, so let's get started on your first training session." Onigiri smiled when he saw that Taylor was almost bouncing on the spot in excitement while her father raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You want her to start right now?" Danny asked while looking unsure about letting his little girl start to learn about how to fight so soon after signing her up for Onigiri's classes. He had thought that the old man would wait until tomorrow before starting Taylor's training.

"Of course, after all, it's like the old saying goes there's no time to start training like the present," Onigiri said while waving over the fledgeling Okami. "Now don't you worry about the girl she'll be back home by 8 pm tonight since that's how long I usually keep the dojo open."

Perhaps sensing his unease over leaving her alone in the dojo Taylor placed a comforting hand onto her father's shoulder. "Don't worry, dad I'll be fine here with Mr Onigiri." She smiled reassuringly at him. "You should go home and order us some dinner from one of the local takeouts I'm feeling in the mood for some Chinese food tonight." She hungrily licked her lips at the prospect of food the action getting her dad to laugh as he knew just how much of a glutton she had become after the locker incident. Really it was like his little Owl had gained six stomachs what with the enormous amount of food she had eaten at the hospital and at home. Honestly, Danny was starting to worry if he should begin hiding food before his daughter eats everything and left nothing for him to eat.

"Okay, little Owl," he relented with a soft smile. "Stay safe and be back by 8 pm." Kissing his daughter on the forehead, Danny turned and went out the front entrance heading home so as to order some take out for him and his little girl who honestly had the appetite of a starving wolf. Though thankfully she didn't have the table manners of one, well except when it came to bones that poor rack of ribs had never stood a chance against Taylor's newly gained ravenous appetite and sharp bone-crunching fangs. Truthfully it had kind of scared him a little bit when he had first bared witness to her tearing the ribs apart with the mad glee of a starving person who had gone weeks without food.

"_You stay safe to dad," _Taylor thought to herself while joining her new sensei, and together they both entered deeper into the depths of the dojo.

**The Onigiri's martial art school's main training chamber. **

"_Oh wow this training gi is so comfy_." Happily thought Taylor entering the chamber while wearing a plain white training gi that her sensei had gifted her to wear during their training sessions. Speaking of the old man she saw him standing casually in the centre of the room his feet much like her own were now bare, allowing them both to feel the straw tatami mats that lay beneath them.

"Ah good you're here now we can begin." Her sensei said once he had noticed her presence within the chamber. His old wizard face was showing nothing but the upmost seriousness as she walked to stand before him.

"Yes sensei what are we going to be doing first." She respectfully asked her teacher while her tail which had to have a hole cut into the training gi's pants to allow it to go through them excitably waved in the air. As the prospect of learning from Onigiri who was an undefeated tournament champion was to put it lightly an exhilarating thought indeed.

"We're going to have ourselves a little spar." Taylor's eyes widened as she stared in disbelief at what her sensei had just told her what they would be doing for her first training session.

"A spar sensei?" She must have misheard him because otherwise, she was about to eat mat since there was no way she who wasn't even a beginner at martial arts had any hope to fight let alone defeat a skilled master like Onigiri.

"You heard me girl were gonna have ourselves a little spar." Drat, she hadn't misheard him which meant she was about to suffer a major ass-kicking courtesy of her sensei's bamboo sword. "Because I need to see how you currently fight before I can even begin to imagine how to help you improve as a warrior." He straightened up from his hunched position while also taking a basic kendo stance his eyes seemed to ignite with a fire that roared with the intensity of a raging inferno. "So take your fighting stance girl and get ready because I'm not gonna take it easy on you after all your here to improve your ability to defend yourself and others not to be cuddled like a child."

Gulping nervously Taylor took her stance which to Onigiri's well-trained eyes looked to no better than a basic brawler, of course, this was why he had wanted to spar with her in the first place. So he could learn how good she currently was at combat and what he was seeing told him that his white-haired student possessed almost no fighting experience whatsoever. Something he would have to correct in the short future because although she hadn't said it to him back in the antechamber Onigiri knew that the girl wanted to be a hero meaning that she would get into fights with the city's Parahumans. So like any good sensei, he would help her prepare for those future battles by beating the necessary combat experience and martial arts knowledge into her skull with the help of his trusty bamboo sword.

"Okay sensei I'm ready." Said Taylor nervously only to yelp in fright a moment later as Onigiri literarily rocketed towards her. At the same time, his trusty bamboo sword was raised high into the air ready to strike.

_"Holy crap he's fast!" _Thought the Okami whilst barely dodging the rapid series of strikes that her sensei who was moving way faster than any old man his age should have been able to do, was currently raining down upon her_. "Not only fast but strong as well." _She barely blocked a hit to the face with her right forearm grimacing as a sharp pain shot through her whole arm. She couldn't really focus on the pain though, as she had to keep all of her concentration on her relentless sensei and his bamboo sword if she wanted to avoid being black and blue when the sparring match was over.

_"I need to somehow throw sensei off of his rhythm quickly. Otherwise I'll never be able to hit him_." The she-wolf frantically thought while dodging another strike meant for her head. When suddenly, an idea had popped into her mind_. "That just might work, but I'll have to time it perfectly_." Narrowing her golden eyes in determination, Taylor once more dodged a sword strike though unlike before when she had just tried to gain some distance between her and Onigiri. She instead came closer while rearing back her left hand and turning it into a fist so as to punch her sensei in the face.

"Take this!" Taylor howled as her fist sailed towards Onigiri's face who instead of blocking the sloppy punch with his sword or just dodging out of the way removed a hand from his bamboo swords hilt and effortlessly caught her punch with his recently freed hand.

"Did you really think that was going to work girl?" The martial arts master asked her in a deadpan tone of voice only to raise an eyebrow in curiosity a moment later. When Taylor instead of looking sheepish like he had half expected her to be when he had so easily caught her punch was smirking at him like he had done precisely what she had wanted him to do and that set off alarm bells in his head.

"Nope." She smugly told him and like a snake that had been coiled to strike her tail came flying over her head. Unfortunately for Taylor Onigiri wasn't going to be easily harmed as he in an awe-inspiring feat of skill and physical ability. While still firmly holding onto her hand, he had jumped into the air, completely avoiding her tail and gracefully sailed over her head and landed soundlessly on the ground. He didn't stop there, though. Because once his feet had touched the floor, he dropped his sword and grabbed his students arm that he was still holding onto and with both hands. The old martial arts master preceded to flawlessly execute a classic judo throw sending the Okami sailing across the room where she landed with a soft thud.

"That was a nice try." She groaned, laying sprawled out on the floor while listening to her sensei talk from the other side of the room. "But you got cocky at the end there with your little scheme." She slowly sat up watching as her sensei picked up his fallen swords from the mats. "Letting your guard down thinking that you had me." He huffed at her in annoyance, while pointing his sword at her making Taylor wince. As phantom pains from when the sword had hit her surged through her body. "A state of mind you should never have when you are in battle because until you see your opponent on the ground and unconscious, you must never think that you are the victor." He slammed his swords onto the ground to help give his words more weight to them.

"Yes, sensei." Taylor bowed her head in understanding and respect to her master's words of wisdom.

"Good!" her sensei huffed in satisfaction. "Now then since I've seen enough of how you fight I'll call the match here." Taylor sighed in gratitude at not having to fight her sensei anymore. "Because now, we will be working on your physical abilities." The white-haired she-wolf whined at hearing that. "Now drop and give me five hundred pushups." He barked while ignoring her whining. "After you managed that much, we will move on to one thousand laps around the training area." Taylor let out a small whimper but knowing better than to argue with her sensei she instead dropped down and started to doing pushups all the while the old man started counting the number of times she successfully did a pushup.

"1,2,3,4,5,6 what you call that a pushup I've seen preschoolers do better, but some spirt into it!" She continued to do her workout while her sensei stood next to her, shouting words of encouragement?

_"I'm starting to think that I may have made a small mistake about staying here and not going home with dad." _

"27,28,29! Come on girl my grandmother could have done this by now, and she's been dead for the past fifty years!"

"_Yep defiantly a mistake_." Concluded Taylor, who just silently pushed herself off of the floor doing the five hundred pushups and that was pretty much how she had spent most of her remaining hours at the dojo doing various exercises. At the same time, her sensei just continued to yell at her to work harder or move faster whilst throwing in the occasional compliment when she had done well at one of the exercises. After she had gotten home a few hours later feeling sore all over but when she had time to reflect upon her time at the dojo today, Taylor would gladly say to anyone that asked her about it that it had been time well spent.

**Onigiri's dojo an hour after Taylor went home second floor.**

The second floor to his dojo had ever since it had been built around forty years ago was sectioned off and isolated from the rest of the building. So that it could act as his home so that he could stay as close to the dojo as was physically possible without compromising any other parts of his life. Not that doing so was even possible anyway since he the great martial arts master Onigiri had thrown way almost everything else in his life to dedicate his mind body and soul to the martial arts. A decision that he hasn't regretted even once since he had begun to walk down the path of the martial arts.

"_That Hebert girl has great potential_." The head of the dojo silently thought while sitting in his homes Japanese styled sitting room while contemplatively drinking some freshly brewed green tea. _"Give her enough time to grow, and she'll be a force to be reckoned with," _Onigiri smirked as he imagined all of the criminal scum that would soon fall before his currently only student when she finally came along as a martial artist.

"_Though it shouldn't really surprise me really seeing as the girl is a kami_." And hadn't that been a shocker when he had figured that one out. Because at first he had thought that some kind of demon was possessing the white-haired youth. But when he had discreetly channelled some of his inner chi into his eyes to see if that was indeed the case, he found that rather than seeing a dark black cloud of negative energy enveloping the child's form. The aged martial artist instead saw a holly ray of divine energy. It was weak just barely breaking out of the girl's skin, but it was there, and at the time Onigiri had to use all of his years of self-discipline to stop himself from dropping to the ground and prostrating himself before the goddess who had come to him seeking training.

_"Yes, there shall be very interesting times ahead for all of us_." Amusedly thought the old man while taking a pen from the nearby table he was sitting next to and began writing down the things he will need for his Okami student's training sessions.

"_Hmm what style should I try to teach her first maybe some jiu-jitsu or maybe something with a bit more acrobatic flexibility like Brazilian capoeira?" _He wrote the idea down while making a mental note to go down into the dojo's basement archive and find the scrolls he had on the two martial art styles.

As Onigiri worked well into the night planning out his student's training program, neither he nor the residents of the city had noticed that up within the star-filled night's sky. A newborn yellow star suddenly came flashing into existence glowing brighter than any of its neighbours. However, it wasn't the only one to be born this night as even more stars of equal brightness shortly followed it. Within a mere few moments after they had been created the newborn celestial bodies formed together into an incomplete dragon-like constellation.


	5. Chapter 5

**A month later, at the Hebert house midnight.**

**Taylor's bedroom. **

"_This is it my first night out as a hero!" _excitedly thought Taylor while busily getting dressed to go out into the city to fight crime. While generally trying to make Brockton bay a better and safer place to live for its civilians. However, the fledgeling heroine had initially wanted to go crime fighting a lot sooner. But after a long discussion with her father over him wanting her to wait a bit longer as he wanted her to get some more serious training done with Onigiri sensei and had managed to convince her to wait another month before heading out into the gang-infested city.

"_Okay, I'm ready just need to add the final touch." _Taylor giddily looked into her bedroom mirror, which showed that she was wearing old expendable clothes that she wouldn't mind losing. Taylor moved her tail up above her head and placed the tip of it right between her wolf ears, and after a second of deep mental concentration, a wispy cloud of black ink came gently flowing out of the tails tip. The ink cloud grew rapidly, swallowing up the wolf girl before dispersing a few moments later to revile that her old clothes were gone, replaced with a long flowing white kimono with blazing suns decorating the sleeves. At the same time, the kimono itself was closed snugly around her waist by an orange sash that lengthened to her knees and had a yin yang symbol etched into its design. As for pants, she wore a white sashinuki hakama, which was gathered at the ankles producing a ballooning effect while her feet remained bare as she has found out from some minor testing that no matter the terrain, nothing seems to bother her feet. Plus, shoes these days felt rather uncomfortable for her, so whenever she got the chance, Taylor would walk around barefoot.

_"Wow, I look good_." Thought the Okami who was admiring her new clothes in the mirror. She was delighted to have stumbled across this particular quirk of her abilities when she had been for the past month testing to see just what kind of things the ink that came out of her tail could do. Besides the whole summoning the sun thing, which she hadn't done since the first time she had accidentally done it, because the she-wolf didn't want to create another city-wide panic attack like last time. Anyway, one of the things she had discovered while testing was the ability to change any kind of object into another, although it had at first servilely drained her of divine energy to use, especially on objects that were far larger than herself. But thankfully, with time and plenty of practice, the drain on Taylor's divine energy reserves had slowly decreased until it was hardly a problem anymore.

"_Now for the mask."_ Holding her hands out like she was a child eagerly waiting to receive a present on Christmas morning. A single blob of black ink around the size of an average human head dripped from her fluffy whitetail. Upon landing onto her eagerly outstretched hands, the black inky blob instead of going splat and staining her hands like one would expect to happen. The He was even of ink condensed, sifted, and transformed itself into an alabaster white wolf mask with the same red tattoos that Taylor possessed etched upon its milky white surface.

"**~Knock knock!~"**

Taylor's wolf ears suddenly perked upwards when she heard a gentle knocking sound coming from her bedroom door, knowing that it was her dad who properly come to see her before she went out into the city for her first time at trying to be a real-life superhero.

"You can come in, dad!" she called out while placing the alabaster wolf mask onto her face. Its soft inner lining was fitting rather comfortably around her tattooed face.

The door to her bedroom softly opened, allowing her father to come inside with a proud look etched upon his aged face when he saw the wolf deity wearing her hero costume.

"Hey kiddo, you ready to go yet?" he asked while coming over to give her a warm hug, which she gladly returned as their relationship was repaired and had even been strengthened over the last month since she had left the hospital.

"Yep, I've got everything I need to go out heroing."

"Even the taser and pepper spray?" Taylor rolled her golden eyes at her father though thankfully, it was hidden by her mask. Because even though he was just making sure that she had everything she needed to protect herself, it still didn't mean that she didn't get a little annoyed at times with her farther's overprotective nature.

"Yes, dad, even the taser and pepper spray," she answered, breaking the hug while taking out the aforementioned items from her sash to show her dad that she indeed had them on her person.

"Good," her father nodded in approval before his face turned serious. "Now, you remember our deal no going into the E88 or ABB territories you stay within the merchants' area of control." She sighed at his words because that had been another thing that she had to agree to in order for her dad to allow her to go out at night to do hero work. Though much to her hidden thankfulness, the condition was only temporary until she had spent at least four months doing hero work as her dad wanted her to build up some experience fighting weaker villains and gang members before moving up to the big leagues, which was why she was only allowed to fight the merchants for now because no one else in the city was as weak and pathetic as the merchant gang lead by their notorious drug kingpin Skidmark.

"I got it, dad E88 and ABB territory bad, merchant gang area controlled by drugged up idiots safe." The Okami said while repocketing her self defense item's back into her sash.

"Just checking to make sure that you remembered, kiddo." Danny looked around the room with a contemplative look. "Though you should start cleaning up your room a bit more often, it's almost overflowing with your art supplies." The she-wolf looked around as well and had to admit that he had a rather good point as various art supplies lay scattered around her bedroom, along with a few paintings that depicted different nature settings that she had done over the past month when she had not been busy training with her sensei or testing with her powers.

"Your right, dad. I'll do that when I get home tonight." Honestly, Taylor had never been that big a fan of art in the past, but while staying at the hospital, she had met a kind elderly man who was there at the time to donate a kidney to a little girl who had desperately needed it. He had shown her some of the art pieces that he had personally drawn while staying at the hospital—even going so far as to share some of his own supplies that he had personally brought to the hospital to share with her when she had once told him that she was bored. The kindly old man had even tutored her in a few basics on how to paint and draw, and to both of their surprise, the wolf girl had a natural gift for art, especially painting.

_"I really need to someday thank that kind old man, Mr. orange, for showing me the joys of painting and the other kinds of art." _Taylor would have gone to visit the hospital to see if he was still there to try and thank him for introducing her to her newfound hobby and passion. But between her sensei's harsh training sessions and the vigorous power testing that was continually being done inside her family's basement to see just what she could do with her power's. Taylor just didn't have the time to go to the hospital to check if he was still there recovering from donating his own kidney.

"Well, you better get going kiddo." The patriarch of the Hebert clan told her while softly patting her head, chuckling a moment later when she began to purr softly at the treatment of his hand; honestly, she couldn't help it, it just felt so good to have her head petted by someone.

"Right, dad, I'll _purr_; see you _purr _later," Taylor said whilst purring, and a moment later, she had reluctantly removed her dad's hand from her head and proceeded to march out of her room. Planning to sneak out the back door, hop over the backyards fencing and make her way into the city.

"Don't forget to be back before eight o'clock!" she heard her dad's voice calling out from her bedroom which earned a groan of embarrassment from the heroine because Taylor highly doubted that the other hero's within the city or the whole world had to have a curfew.

"I will, dad!" She yelled back, whilst running down the stairs, then out the back, gracefully hopping over the fence and without being seen by any of her neighbours. Taylor swiftly made her way into the city fully ready to fight crime and make the world a better place.

**The merchant gangs territory between the docks and the downtown area.**

"_T.V and the internet lied to me!" _Taylor grumpily thought to herself while nimbly hopping from rooftop to rooftop, having spent the last few hours patrolling the merchant gangs current area of control. That is until one of the other gangs that polluted the city finally decided that they wanted the territory for themselves only to find that there weren't any crimes being committed by the drug-selling gang. "_I mean the news and the PHO website made it sound like the city's criminals were just crawling out of the woodwork committing crimes and generally breaking the law every single day and night." _Of course, she had quickly figured out that the website and the news had been exaggerating as the night waned onwards, but it still didn't make her feel any less frustrated with the whole thing, as she had come out tonight to fight crime, not to sightsee.

"_I mean I'll do anything for something exciting to happen right about now I don't care what it is so long as it revolves around me stopping some kind of crime." _The wolf girl was about to jump over to another rooftop only to pause as her sensitive ears suddenly picked up a strange sound coming from the direction where the merchants' territory meet the area which encompassed the docks and boat graveyard.

_"Hum, I wonder what that sounds is?" _with her curiosity, piqued Taylor swiftly made her way towards the location of the strange sound. Upon arrival, she saw a group of around ten merchant thugs trying and much to her own silent amusement, comically failing to break into what looked like a small Japanese shrine, which was surrounded by old run-down apartment buildings complete with its own red torii gate that stood proudly near the entrance to the shine.

"Shit, why won't this stupid lock come off already!" She heard one of the merchant thugs yell while trying to pick the shrines locked door. Come to think of it why were they even trying to steal from the shrine in the first place. Didn't they know that Lung, the leader of the ABB, was a highly religious follower of the gods of his homeland and that the last person who had been stupid enough to pull a similar stunt to the one they were trying to pull off. Had been violently roasted alive by the pissed off Parahuman dragon when he had finally caught the thieving idiot trying to sell off the stolen artefacts within his own territory no less. Needless to say that after that incident, no one in the city was dumb enough to try stealing from any of the shrines that were located throughout the bay. That is until these chumps thought to give it a try.

"Just hurry it up, man," one of the other thugs said to the one currently trying to pick the shrines lock. "Because I don't want to be here any longer, then we have to incase the protectorate bastards show up or even worse, Lung." The thug shivered in fear at the ABB leaders name, which was good as it showed Taylor that not everyone in the merchant group was an idiot. Because fearing Lung showing up instead of the PRT was the right thing to do because while the PRT would just arrest them and send them off to jail, Lung would kill them all on the spot while properly making their deaths as gruesomely painful as was humanly possible.

"Why are we stealing from this place anyway?" asked another thug who was scratching his messy and greasy black hair.

"Because you idiot," said the lock picking thug who turned his skeletal and blood shoot face towards the questioning thug. "The boss wants more money for some kind of massive project that his girlfriend is currently working on back at their main hideout." He explained, causing his fellow thug to let out a small oh in understanding. "Now all of you shit heads be quiet. I'm trying to get this blasted door open, and all of your chatter is distracting me" there were a few collective grumbles from the surrounding thugs. Still, they soon followed the lock picking thug's order allowing him to get back to picking the lock in silence.

As for Taylor, she stood perched over the rooftop nearest to the shrine her head tilted in curiosity as she mentally digested all that she had overheard from the group of merchant thugs down below.

_"A massive project, huh sounds interesting_." That didn't even begin to cover it because while Skidmark was the weakest gang leader that populated Brockton his gang wasn't, by any stretch of the word, the poorest of the three major gangs. Which was ironic given the man was homeless and dressed like a wrestling hobo complete with a half-face mask. So if the poison seller needed even more money than his drug business could supply. Then it must mean that whatever this so-called project he had his girlfriend, the infamous vehicle tinker Squealer working on, was costly in both time and resources. It also must have a big pay off if he was going through all this trouble to gather everything for it. He was even going so far as to potentially piss off Lung and start a gang war to do so.

"_I need to find out where their hideout is and see just what their massive project is all about." _Because whatever it is that Skidmark was planning couldn't mean anything good for the inhabitants of the city, especially if he was pouring so many resources and manpower into getting it done.

"Ah-ha, I finally got the son of a bitch!" Taylor looked back down at the merchant group, and unfortunately, the drugged up idiots who thought that robbing a place that would piss off the leader of the ABB was a great idea had indeed finally managed to pick the shrine's lock.

"_But first things first, I have to stop these guys from robbing the shrine_." With a single graceful move, Taylor jumped off of the rooftop and into the air, effortlessly landing behind the merchant thugs a moment later with a silent thud. The aforementioned group of drugged-up men were far too excited with their little victory over the lock which had kept them from their prize to notice her arrival.

"Good going, man," said the merchant at the far back of the group and was consequently the one she was nearest to. "Now, let's loot the place and get out of here before anything happens." Taylor felt a smirk tug at the edge of her lips while she was pulling out the taser that her dad had gifted her as a backup means of self-defense from her orange sash.

"Too late for that dumbass." She casually told the unnamed thug before jamming her taser straight into his exposed, not to mention extremely dirty neck at full power, causing the guy to uncontrollably spasm for a few seconds before falling unconsciously onto the cold, unforgiving ground. The short scream that he had managed to get out along with the rather heavy thud that his body caused made the rest of his comrades turn around and stare in shock over her sudden appearance.

"Oh fuck, its a cape!" The one who had unlocked the shrine door screamed in fear while the other thugs quickly pulled out of their dirty clothes various types of weapons, mostly small knives and blunt objects like rusty pipes or wooden clubs that seemed to have been fashioned out of old rotten plywood.

"Don't you come any closer, you wolf, bitch!" One of the thugs holding a small knife yelled, getting a raised eyebrow in response. Though they couldn't see it thanks to the mask, she was currently wearing.

"_So, they can see me?" _Curiously thought Taylor with a small head tilt, though to say that the thugs before her could actually see her divine form would be untrue. Because when she had changed her clothes back at home, the magic that hid her true form from the world had modified itself to make anyone who saw her when in costume see her just as she was before the locker incident. Though with the added features of a black wolfs tail and ears along with making her kimono look brown and worn with no designs decorating it whatsoever and matching brown hakama pants with different coloured patches of cloth sewn on in random places. As for her mask, it looked to the thugs to be just made out of boring old brown wood without any of her tattoo marks to decorate its surface.

"If you surrender now, I can promise that all of you won't be hurt," she told the gang of currently nine members, having placed the thought of them seeing her wolfish form to the back of her mind for now. "But if you resist, then I'll have no chose but to use violence against you." She emphasized her threat by brandishing her taser at them. The merchants looked at each other for a second, before they all took a threatening step forwards.

"Our answer bitch is fuck you!" the lock picker of the group angrily yelled at her; seems that having the enormous numbers advantage gave the man some courage. However, given what she saw of his past, the Okami knew that if things went south for them, then he would gladly abandon his friends to their fate. Not surprising really as he had done it before once when the ABB had attacked one of their drug houses and another time when Hookwolf was fighting their gang's Parahumans and with each cowardly retreat that he had managed to pull had cost a merchant member their life. Not that he cared because all the little weasel currently hiding behind the other merchant members cared about was protecting his own skin oh and getting high off his ass on drugs.

"Welp, at least people can't say that I didn't at least try to give you scumbags a chance to surrender," Taylor said with a sad shake of her head.

"Well, what are you idiots waiting for get her!" The command from the lockpicker, who was named Samuel Richards, caused the drugged up thugs to charge yelling a battle cry. While he rather predictably hanged back to wait and see if his gang could win the fight and if not, then he would do as he always has done in a fight he couldn't win. He would bolt, using his fellow gang members as a distraction while he made his escape. If escape wasn't possible, then he could just use the ace that his boss had given him and the others before coming to the shrine.

"_Okay, Taylor, its time to finally put sensei's training to the test," _swiftly stashing the teaser back into her orange sash, the heroine, with quick and agile steps, ran forwards to meet the charging merchants, a trail of grass and flowers were blooming within her wake.

The first merchants she came into contact with were a pair of tall ratty-looking men with skinny frames and unkept hair. Their weapons of choice were a single rusty pipe each.

"Die, bitch!" Yelled one of the ratty men but she ignored him more focused on his partner, who swung his pipe with all the force he could muster at her head. Though it didn't connect as she swiftly ducked down, allowing the pipe to sail past harmlessly, but she didn't stop there moving with lightning-fast speed and reflexes. Taylor used two of her fingers to strike a certain point in the drug-addicted man's arm, causing it to go slack, forcing the ratty merchant to drop his pipe whilst his dirty clothed arm lay limply at his side.

"What the hell did you just do to him?!" Questioned the merchant that had a moment ago told her to die, his dirt-stained face taking on a picture of absolute fear while taking a cautious step backward whilst defensively raising his pipe not that it would help him in the next few minutes.

"Kyusho Jitsu." Was the only thing she told the fearful merchant before relentlessly attacking them both with the pressure point martial art style that Onigiri had taken to beating into her skull for the past month, along with a few other martial arts that focused heavily on speed, agility, flexibility, and aerial acrobatics, of course, Taylor wasn't anywhere close to being a master of the fighting style's that she had learned over the past month. But thankfully, she was just about good enough with the basics to use them effectively in battle. Mostly thanks to her sensei's ruthless training regime and against these merchants who didn't know the slightest thing about martial arts, it would be an invaluable advantage towards her victory.

In a matter of mere seconds, Taylor had managed to strike down the two ratty men. Their filthy clothed forms lay helplessly on the ground like a pair of puppets who had their strings cut. As for the rest of the now remaining seven merchants, they were just standing their mouths open in total shock after witnessing just how easily she had taken out their comrades like they weren't any kind of threat to her at all.

"Then there was seven," Taylor said, purposefully talking as slowly and ominously as she possibly could to scare the merchants, and it was working as she saw some of them literally start shaking in their dirty filthy covered boots.

"Don't just stand there you morons, attack her before she takes us all down!" Okay, Taylor was really starting to get annoyed with Samuel, and his constant yelling that and his slightly high pitched and wheezing voice was also beginning to get on her nerves. But besides that, he seemed to have snapped his fellow merchants out of their fear as they probably realized that the only way out of this was by defeating her, especially since she was blocking their only exit.

_"Better not give them any more time to group up or even think of a plan_." Narrowing her unseen golden eyes in determination, Taylor ran towards the nearest thug, a guy who looked like mere moments away from keeling over from exhaustion. Properly a side effect from taking so many drugs in the past twenty-four hours. Still, he was her enemy, and Taylor wouldn't show him any mercy, especially since he was wielding a pocket knife and had the fullest intent to use it on her until she was nothing more than a dead and unmoving corpse on the ground.

"Shit!" Her opponent cursed, taking a sideways swing with his pocket knife in a rather poor attempt at killing her. Still, his sad excuse for fighting skills was his loss, and her gain as Taylor quickly jumped into the air avoiding the knife altogether. With lightning-fast speed, she swung her tail at him, hitting the filthy man across the face sending him flying backwards and crashing into another thug with such force that both men were rendered unconscious upon impact with the ground.

"Five!" She yelled out in victory only to let out a surprised yelp a moment later when a pair of scrawny ragged clothed arms suddenly wrap themselves around her waist from behind and quickly proceeded to lift her into the air.

"Ah got ya now bitch!" smirked the man holding her, showing off all his rotten yellow teeth believing that he had neutralized the threat to himself and the other still standing merchants.

"Yeah, no, you don't," the Okami told the thug with a deadpan tone before moving her head to the side and sprayed the homeless man eyes with pepper spray. The idiot had forgotten to pin her arms to her sides when he had grabbed her.

"Oh fuck my eyes!" He screamed in pain, letting her go so he could try to wipe away the paper spray from his eyes. Unfortunately for him, he never got the chance to even try because, like a club of fluffy white fury, Taylor's tail came smashing down upon his skull, sending him crashing to the ground and into the realm of unconsciousness.

"Four!" She stepped sideways, avoiding a swing to the head by a merchant wielding a wooden club. Unlucky for him, his swing was too wide and way too strong, throwing him off balance. That moment of weakness was all that Taylor needed because acting quickly, she lashed out and grabbed ahold of his right arm, getting an undignified yelp out of the homeless man. But she ignored it and proceeded to use the thug as a makeshift projectile throwing him at two of the four remaining gangsters. They could only shout in surprise at their swiftly approaching flying comrade before the aforementioned comrade crashed into them with the intensity of a speeding van. The trio of thugs went unconscious the moment that they had crashed into each other.

"Then, there was one." Taylor calmly said before turning towards the last fighting capable thug left while ignoring the pained groans that surround her from the unconscious merchant thugs. The Okami tilted her head, whilst her wolf ear perked forwards in curiosity when she saw Samuel screaming quite hurriedly into a poorly maintained walkie talkie.

"Jason! Jason, you son of a bitch get the bosses vehicle here now there's a cape, and she's kicking our collective asses!"

"_Jason? Vehicle?" _The she-wolf scratched her right wolf ear in contemplation "_now, why do those two things make me feel worried." _It was right there on the tip of her tongue, but for the life of her, Taylor just couldn't remember why those two words meant danger.

"**~Roooooooooar!~"**

Taylor's wolf ears perked up in alertness when she suddenly heard the sounds of a colossal engine screaming its metal fury into the cold night air. Turning towards the source of the sound, knowing that it was safe to do so since Samuel was too much of a coward to try anything, especially when he saw how she had single-handedly taken out his friends barehanded.

_"Oh yeah, that's why." _Taylor's wolf ears flattened themselves against her skull as she saw a demented fusion of garbage truck and monster truck come barreling down the road. Its driver clearly had zero disregard for anyone or anything that got in his way. Taylor knew that it was a he because Samuel's memories had shown her a scene of him. His drugged up friend Jason North receiving the vehicle from Skidmark as insurance in case anything terrible went wrong with the shrine heist tonight, and given that the hideous green and grey monstrosity was a creation of Squealer's, it was probably armed to the teeth with weapons that she just wasn't equipped to handle right now.

_"Stupid, stupid Taylor, just how did you forget about the damn monster vehicle?" _The Okami scolded herself for forgetting about something so important, though, to be fair. She had kind of gotten caught up within the excitement of the fight to remember the fact that the ugly thing had even existed. Unfortunately, she was so busy reprimanding herself for such an oversight that she didn't notice that Jason. Who was hidden from view via heavily tinted black windows had activated some kind of booster that made the vehicle come literally flying over the road and by the time she had noticed. It was already too late, as the monster truck/garbage truck hybrid rammed into her sending Taylor soaring through the air and crash-landed through the shrines wooden doors.

**The inside of the shrine. **

"_Oh man, am I ever glad that my powers make me more durable than a normal human otherwise I'll have been a wolf road pizza when that stupid hybrid truck hit me." _Taylor thought while carefully removing herself from the destroyed remains of a wooden pedestal that had been holding up some kind of object. However, she hadn't seen what it was holding up as she had been far too busy crashing through a thick wooden pair of doors to really take notice.

"_Still just how am I going to defeat that thing?" _she bites into one of her clawed nails in worriment as she didn't have anything in her arsenal that could take the hulking mass of metal down. "_I can't run away. Otherwise, those two will loot the shrine and steal all of the places sacred items" _kicking out a foot in frustration, Taylor suddenly felt a slight pain shot through her leg as her foot connected with something that felt like metal on the wooden floor.

_"Hum, what's this some kind of disk?" _staring down at her feet, the fledgeling Okami saw a bronze circler shaped disk which must have been the thing that had rested upon the pedestal before she had come crashing through the doors it was a curious object. When she had picked it up from the floor, Taylor suddenly felt a strange connection with the disk along with feeling a gentle warmth emanating from the artefact's bronze surface.

"It's rather beautiful." Complemented the she-wolf who was enjoying the warmth that the disk emitted. "To bad that it can't help me with my little truck problem." As if responding to her words, the bronze disk suddenly burst into flames earning a surprised yelp from the heroine. Who released the disk from her hands but instead of falling to the ground, the disk just hovered in the air spinning rapidly whilst red, and orange flames gently danced around it.

"Okay, I really didn't see that one coming." The Okami gently muttered to herself while wearily staring at the flaming disk that just floated there like it was waiting for some kind of command from her.

"_Maybe it is waiting for me to give it an order?" _Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to at least give it a try Taylor took a deep calming breath before giving an order to the floating disk.

"Come here" as soon as the order left her mouth, the disk came rapidly flying towards her and before Taylor could even blink the bronze flaming disk had crossed the distance between them stopping itself just mere inches away from her masked face.

Taylor stared at the innocently spinning disk for a moment before she felt her lips curled into a deadly smirk as the realization that she now had a new weapon to use against the merchant's little tinker truck outside dawned upon her.

_"Okay now, this I can use" _with a small command she made the disk move behind her back curiously as the disk floated there the flames looked like they were now erupting from Taylor rather than the disk itself. However, this little detail went unnoticed by the wolf girl as she began walking towards the ruined door, fully planning to deal with that monstrous vehicle and show Samuel Richards and Jason North just why it was a bad idea to mess with her.

"_Though I think that my new weapon deserves a name," _she thought about it for a moment while walking towards the shrine's entrance, and after giving it much thought, Taylor had come up with something that she felt was the most fitting name for the flaming disk weapon. A name that would pay homage to its origins and tell anyone who heard it what exactly she will do to them if she ever caught them committing acts of evil and the name of her new disk-like weapon was _Divine retribution_. Which unbeknownst to the young goddess, was going to be the first of many divine instruments that she would later obtain during her future years as a hero.


	6. Chapter 6

**The outside of the shrine a few seconds after Taylor got launched through the doors. **

"All right Jason!" excitedly cheered Samuel Richard who was now standing next to the monster truck/garbage truck hybrid which had its side windows rolled down allowing for Jason to stick out his bald head complete with bloodshot eyes. "You really nailed that bitch." Though the big guy had accidentally crushed the others when the bosses vehicle had landed on top of their unconscious forms after ramming headfirst into the wolf bitch. But who would seriously care about those idiots anyway he certainly didn't, and he highly doubted that the boss would either just so long as he and Jason came back to the hideout with the artefacts from the shrine to sell off to anyone who would want to buy the stuff.

"Aw shucks it was nothing Sammy" bashfully replied Jason who was scratching his bald head in embarrassment. "The bosses truck did all the work really I just drove the thing." He affectionately patted the steering wheel for emphasis before his face took on a more worried look. "But do you think that the boss would be mad at me for accidentally killing the others?"

"Nah man like you just said it was an accident." The weasel in human form said trying to relive Jason of his fears of facing a pissed off Skidmark. "I'm sure that the boss will understand especially when I tell him you were too busy fighting and defeating a cape to really notice what was going on around you." However, he would modify the story a little bit to shine himself in a more positive light to the boss. Heck if he played his cards right, Samuel could possibly get a promotion from the big boss man and become a lieutenant which meant more power and access to the more potent and powerful drugs that only the upper tiers of the merchant gang hierarchy could be allowed access to use.

"Now come on man we've got work to do, and we're wasting time just standing around talking," he told his truck driving friend cheerfully clapping his hands together while a greedy smile flashed across his shrunken skeletal face. "Heck if we hurry we may even get back before the other scavenging team's do" which would give him even more time alone with the boss to spin the false tale of his and Jason's heroic battle against an unknown Parahuman. Now that Samuel thought about it he should also take the bitch's wolf mask back to the hideout as proof that they had indeed killed her to the boss who would no doubt want evidence to prove that they had indeed done the black-haired wolf bitch in.

"**~Kaboooooooom!~**"

Samuel let out a cry of fright as a massive explosion suddenly when off followed shortly by a hail of wooden fragments coming from the shrines ruined front entrance. When the storm of wooden bits had finally stopped, and he had the chance to get a proper look at what had caused the whole thing the weaselly merchant felt his excellent mood vanish quicker than water in the middle of a scorching hot desert. Because standing there at the very top of the shrines stone steps was the wolf bitch who was unharmed and even worse she was now on fire surrounded by a halo of red and golden flames.

"You know," began the bitch as he nervously watched her slowly walk down the steps while the halo of flames surrounding her danced and licked at the air. "I wanted to resolve this peacefully." She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. At the same time, her tail cracked like a whip onto the ground with such strength the stone shattered upon impact. "But no you and your friends are just too fixated on feeding your vices to even care about what your actions will do to others." He felt himself grit his teeth in anger at the high and mighty tone in which his and Jason's foe had taken, like she had some kind of dammed right to judge them for what they've done.

"Fuck you!, you rag wearing bitch" he angrily snarled at her because seriously who gave the wolf eared slut the right to judge him. Samuel Richards, a proud member of the biggest drug-selling gang within the whole dammed city "you've got no right to judge us." He spat out getting an agreeing ya from Jason who was looking just as pissed off as he was currently feeling.

"Your right, I don't have the right to judge you." He blinked in confusion because he seriously didn't expect the bitch to agree with him "neither does the PRT or the police." Okay, did she have a point because this was just getting more confusing as she kept on talking "but do you know who does have the right to judge you?" The hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end as the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees and somehow he could tell she was glaring at him from behind that wooden mask of her's.

"It's your victims" she all but snarled out. "The ones who you mercilessly prey upon when they are at their most venerable." The flames surrounding her grew brighter, like they were responding to her emotions. "You tell them that you can help them feel better that you can take away their pain and suffering." Her tone shifted into one of pure loathing at their past actions. "Only the truth is all your really doing is using them to feed your own greed and grow fat off of their misery with no regard to whether they live or die so long as you can happily drown in your own vices."

"Shut up!" He angrily screamed at her wanting for her to shut up and stop talking about his past actions like they were something to feel ashamed about, but unfortunately, the mask women didn't stop she calmly kept ongoing.

"But you didn't just stop at tricking and using people, did you?" He felt himself stiffen up at those words because there was absolutely no way in hell that she knew about that particular activity that he had been apart of. Since he had done everything in his power to hide it from the police and especially the other city's gangs as they would have done everything within their own power to have his head mounted onto a razor-sharp spike if they ever found out about what he had done. "No, you took things a step further by snatching young teenagers off of the street and forcefully addicting them to the poison that which your gang is so proud of selling." He could just faintly hear a wolfish growl of disgust leave the back of her throat "destroying their futures just because your far too weak to make something better with your own life."

"Shut up!" He screamed again only this time; it was weaker because as much as he wanted to ignore what the bitch was saying her words were now starting to get to him.

"Why? Don't like facing the truth, Samuel." He stared at her in open shock while his face went white in terror because there was no way that she should know his name. "That's it, isn't it? You could never handle the truth even when your wife left you because you were abusing her and getting yourself high almost every day on drugs. Instead, of taking responsibility for your actions when she finally had enough and left your vile ass, you decided to deny the truth and blamed all those around you for her leaving you." He felt his breath quicken, and his anger rises with each new word that comes out of her mouth. Most of all, he felt fear, fear towards the black wolf women, who not only seemed to know everything about him but was even making him feel guilty and ashamed of himself, which was preposterous because he had no reason to be ashamed or guilty over the things he had done in the past.

"Even now, you are trying to justify your actions to yourself." She took a step forward, and he unintentionally took one back in response "trying to deny the truth about how you've ruined other peoples lives for your own selfish reasons." The fiery halo grew even brighter, making him shield his eyes from the blinding light. "But no matter how much you lie to yourself and others you can't escape from your own sins." He suddenly felt tears start flowing down his face, and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get them to stop.

"Shut up shut up shut up!" He repeated those two words over and over again like a mantra hoping that they could somehow help him refute her words and free himself from this terrible, all-consuming guilt that he was now feeling.

"Oh, Samuel, why can't you accept the truth?" The bitch who was making him feel this way had suddenly asked him. Her tone turning into one of sadness and pity which only made him feel even worse about himself and without him even realising it the merchant thug had opened his mouth screaming his answer towards the very heavens themselves.

"Because it would destroy me if I did!" The tears were now streaming down his face like an unstoppable tsunami. "Because I'm too much of a damn coward to accept that I'm a horrible person whose only achievement in life was hurting others." He confessed while falling onto his knees whilst his whole body shook uncontrollably as he was forced by his now guilty conscience to admit what he always knew about himself but was just too cowardly to admit it.

A cold heavy silence enveloped the area as his friend Jason looked at him in disbelief. At the same time, the wolf bitch's face was hidden by that wooden wolf mask so he couldn't really tell what she was thinking probably about how pathetic he truly was and how he should just do the whole world a favour and just die already before he ruined anyone else's life.

"It's not too late to change," he couldn't help but to openly gape at her after the flames had died down and had lost some of their brightness. "Don't get me wrong you've done many vile things in the name of slaking your vices but that doesn't mean that your soul isn't completely unredeemable." Her words brought him a little bit of hope, and he desperately wanted to believe her because he would do anything to make the guilt and shame that was slowly consuming him go away. "I'm also not saying that it's going to be easy redeeming yourself because these kind of things never truly are but if you want to change for the better, then please surrender now and give up on the merchants."

"I…." He opened his mouth to speak. Only to be cut off as the hybrid truck's engine suddenly roared to life, and he could just make out from the corner of his teary vision that Jason was glaring hatefully at the person who was offering him a chance of redemption.

"Jason wait!" He tried to order his fellow merchant only to curse as the big idiot ignored him and drove the truck towards the flaming cape at the bottom of the shrines stone steps who just sighed sadly while shaking her head in disappointment.

"Well, I guess that I'll be turning that ugly truck into a roasted pile of scrap after all." He faintly heard her say before she charged towards the truck with what was to his own bloodshot eyes a reckless abandonment and all Samuel could do was helplessly watch on as his admittedly best friend Jason and the wolf women fight it out in an epic battle.

**Meanwhile with Taylor. **

_"Well, I guess nows the time to give you a test run huh divine retribution," _Taylor thought while running towards the rapidly approaching tinker truck honestly, she was a bit nervous about taking on the hulking machine. Still, she wouldn't allow a small thing like nerves to stop her from doing what's right and right now that meant stopping Jason North and the tinker tech vehicle that he was currently driving before he could cause any more harm to the shrine. Or worse kill anyone else with his mad and reckless driving which had already taken the lives of nine people.

"_I need to somehow take that thing down without getting hit by it." _Getting an idea Taylor mentally commanded divine retribution to fly ahead of her its flames were dancing beautifully whilst the bronze disk span rapidly through the air kind of like a frisbee.

"_Wait for it, wait for it"_ her golden eyes closely watched the hideous truck came closer it's enormous black tyres made a horrible screeching noise as they burned rubber the sound was so loud that it honestly hurt her sensitive ears to listen too.

"_**Now!" **_

With a single graceful step Taylor launched herself onto her disk weapon which she had ordered to stay flat in order to use it as a platform and before the truck could hit her, she had springboarded up into the air avoiding the truck completely. Whilst she was above the tinker construct the Okami unleashed a series of rapid-fire strikes with divine retribution which had dutifully followed her after its task as a makeshift springboard had been completed. The strong tinker reinforced metal that made up the insult to vehicles everywhere was easily dented inwards by force generated by her new weapon. Some random patches were even beginning to melt thanks to the intense heat that divine retribution was generating.

Unfortunately, she had only done a small amount of damage to the monstrous vehicle's roofing, but that didn't deter her. If anything, it had encouraged Taylor to try even harder as it showed that the monstrous machine could be harmed and eventually destroyed by the time she had finally landed back on the ground. The tinker truck had managed to turn back around for another charge though thankfully it had avoided hitting the shrine, but the Okami just chalked it up to Jason not wanting to harm the valuable items located within the holly structure.

_**"Eat this, you fucking bitch!" **_Jason's enraged voice came screeching out of the tinker truck via hidden loudspeakers. However, she couldn't really focus on that at the moment as the sides of the abomination that was designed as a practical garbage truck suddenly opened up reviling pods filled to the brim with many deadly rockets.

"_Oh joy rockets." _Taylor sarcastically thought while the aforementioned rockets came flying out of their pods screaming their death cry as they flew through the air towards her seeking to explode and violently rip her apart. Things only got worse though as Jason began to drive the truck forwards, the drugged-up merchant thug was most likely going to try running her over if the swarm of rockets somehow failed to kill her.

"_I've got to somehow send those things back at him." _She tried searching her mind for any ideas. "_Preferably before he can get the chance to turn me into road pizza." _Suddenly an idea came to her one that was so crazy that at first the heroine was tempted to dismiss it, but something deep within her soul told her that it would work. Deciding to trust her instincts, Taylor patiently waited for the swarm of around ten rockets to reach her and just as they were about to hit her. She had thrown divine retribution in front of herself its flames of red and gold rapidly grew larger around its bronze body, forming a shield of some kind. Once the deadly rockets had struck its surface, they were miraculously sent flying back towards their owner whose face was staring though the blackened windows of his tinker truck with open-mouthed disbelief.

"**Fuck!" **Taylor silently watched on as Jason quickly turned the hybrid truck sideways smartly allowing the tinker vehicle's side which now that she got a better look at it was slightly better armoured than the rest of its body. To take the damage caused by the ten rockets smashing violently into it. Though when the smoke that had been caused by the exploding rockets had finally cleared it reviled that the sides of the hideous thing were made of far tougher stuff, then she had initially thought. As the only thing that was destroyed from the blast was the stupid thing's outer armour, allowing her to see the inside of the vehicle and the many racks of missile that were stored within its mechanical belly.

"**Your gonna pay for that!" **The truck swerved back around to face her again though this time its right side was now spitting out clouds of black smoke and many chips of twisted, burning metal came falling out of it.

"With your driving and fighting skills, it's highly doubtful that you can make me do much of anything." She calmly retorted while readying divine retribution for another attack. "Especially while you're piloting that ugly pile of scrap metal." The she-wolf smirked when she heard a hateful scream come blasting out of the trucks hidden speakers knowing that her taunts were working and that Jason would most likely now come at her recklessly now that his mind was far too clouded by rage to think clearly. That was something which Taylor would gladly take advantage of and just like she had predicted Jason let out a roar of rage and recklessly charged towards her. The awful smell of burning rubber filled her sensitive nose as the truck rapidly closed the distance between them with its enraged driver having the full intention of turning her into roadkill.

Acting swiftly the heroine performed the same trick as she had done before launching herself into the air via the help of divine retribution and just as Taylor was about to cause even more damage to the hybrid trucks roofing. A small group of missile pods suddenly opened up from the top causing Taylor to stare at it with a mixture of surprise and annoyance at the weapon batteries sudden appearance.

_"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" _she felt her golden eyes twitch angrily whilst the missile battery fired its deadly armaments. Though thanks to her disk weapon she managed to effortlessly reflect the missiles back at their point of origin causing the battery to explode and go up in a cascade of raging flames. Unfortunately, Taylor had wasted the allotted amount of time that she had when it came to being able to fly over the truck, forcing her to once more return to the ground.

_"Okay, I need to change my fighting strategy," _the Okami thought to herself whilst the abominable tinker truck made a hard turn to get into position for another charge. _"I mean I'm damaging it, but at this rate, it's gonna take me hours of fighting before that thing finally stops moving_." Her golden eyes carefully watched the tinker trucks wheels spin up for another charge before they moved onto the things black smoking side. Upon looking at the damaged side, Taylor suddenly had an idea one that could potentially stop the tinker creation in its tracks once and for all.

_"Yeah, that could work" _a devious smile worked its way onto her lips while her tail swished happily though the air. _"But first I'll have to make sure that the idiot driving it comes at me without any thought of stopping." _Thankfully Jason was already pissed off at her, so all the wolf goddess really needed to do now was taunt him a little bit more to ensure that he wouldn't even think of stopping the tinker truck once he had started driving it forwards in an attempt to kill her.

"Come on dumbass is that all you got?!" Taylor yelled rather loudly at the truck, fully knowing that Jason could easily hear her even with the horrible screeching sound that the tinker vehicle's tyres were giving off. "I mean, I've seen two-year-old children drive better than you." The taunt worked as a hateful scream filled the cold night air whilst the truck came flying towards her waiting patiently until the last possible second and before the monstrous truck could hit her. The kimono wearing Okami swiftly jumped to the side, and as the truck speeded past, she throws divine retribution into the smoking hole in the truck's side. Where it must have struck one of the missiles inside because everything within the tinker truck's metal belly had exploded with a thunderous kaboom.

_"Well, that takes care of that problem," _Taylor thought relived that the monstrous truck was defeated as its ruined husk was now laying down on its side. At the same time, the tinker vehicle's insides were now nothing more than a useless pile of melted scrap metal and broken parts. As for Jason, the homeless merchant thug was currently crawling his way out of the driver's seat covered in some rather nasty looking cuts though thankfully none of them seemed to be fatal.

"cough, cough you bitch I'm gonna…." Began Jason snarling like a rabid animal whilst glaring furiously at her only to stop talking a moment later when Samuel wielding a crowbar suddenly came out of nowhere and quickly proceeded to smack him across the back of the head hard enough to render him unconscious. Taylor would be lying if she had said that the sudden turn of events hadn't caught her by surprise.

"Well I didn't see that one coming" she softly whispered to herself whilst mentally recalling divine retribution the disk weapon came flying out of the ruined husk of a truck sailed through the cold night air and retook its place behind her back ready to be used again. But with the sudden turn of events just now Taylor was highly doubtful that she would be needing it, especially when Samuel threw away the crowbar leaving him utterly defenceless against the Okami if she decided to take him down. Which he must know and somewhat trust her not to do because given the homeless man's character he wouldn't have relinquished the weapon if he thought for even a moment that she would try and attack him.

"Did you mean it?" It didn't take a genius to know what he was asking her, and Taylor felt her golden eyes soften towards the merchant thug. Knowing that her next words could either break the man into a hollowed husk or help him start a long and arduous journey towards becoming a better person. Taylor knew that she would be failing her sacred duty as a hero if she didn't at least try to help him start going down that very path to becoming a better man then he currently was now.

"Yes, I meant every word," she told him softly while walking over to stand by his side. "It wouldn't be easy for you like I said before" she gently placed a hand onto his shoulder making him flinch, but he didn't make a move to remove her hand which she took as a good sign to continue "you've got a lot to make up for and the many people you've hurt over the years may never forgive you." He looked saddened by her words but nodded in understanding ", but if you leave the merchants stopped taking drugs and start trying to help others, then I know from the bottom of my very soul that you can find redemption."

"Redemption huh" he sadly chuckled like the meaning of the word couldn't be any further out of his reach. "It sounds nice but" he heaved a sad sigh while still looking at his downed friend who he had just hit with a crowbar. "I wouldn't even know where to start trying" Taylor allowed herself to smile behind her mask because she knew exactly where he could start redeeming himself for his past deeds.

"You can start right now," he looked at her in confusion "stay here take care of your friend, and when the police arrive tell them what has happened here this night." She gently explained while her wolf ears twitched a bit as she could just faintly hear the sound of police sirens coming closer towards them. "After you get out of their custody come back here and try helping this place get repaired or if you wish get a job here to work off the debt you owe to the city and its inhabitants." She watched as his skeletal face scrunched up in thought for a moment before nodding his head in agreement.

"Yea, I think I'll do that," he told her while crouching down to begin helping his friend get into a more comfortable position. "Heck if I play my cards right I could even get the big guy here to join me." Taylor's hidden smile grew even bigger knowing that Jason would indeed join him if he asked because unlike the other members of the merchant gang Samuel Richards and Jason North truly cared about each other. The twos combined memories had clearly shown her this. If that wasn't enough proof of the loyalty of the two to one other, then the fact that Jason had attacked her for making Samuel cry was undoubtedly all the evidence that one needed in order to see just how far the depths of their loyalty to each other went.

"I'm sure that you'll be able to convince him" she kindly reassured the soon to be former merchant member. "But I'm afraid that I've lost enough time here and I must get going before dawn comes" she turned around to leave making it only a few steps before Samuel's voice called out for her.

"Wait, what's your name!?" Taylor turned her masked covered face towards him while tilting her head in a sign of confusion. "The cops are gonna wanna know the name of the cape who kicked the shit out of me and the others." He gestured towards the wreckage and the other signs of violence, getting an understanding huh out of her in response.

"Your right" she agreed while wracking her brain for a suitable hero name and after a moment of deep thought Taylor found a name that seemed to resonate with the very core of her being. A name that she wanted the people for the city to cry out in joy when she arrived to save the day and for the evildoers to scream in fright when they realised that their days of doing whatever they wanted within her city were about to come to a painful end.

"Okami my name is Okami," she told Samuel her hero name Okami which means wolf in Japanese. But if someone tried to pronounce it with a different set of kanji, it would also translate to meaning great wolf deity. A little tidbit of information that she was, unfortunately, unaware of nor of the massive amount of headaches that would soon follow when her hero name had spread all over the city especially when it got to the ABB gangs territory. Consequently, their dragon transforming leader Lung.

"Okami huh" slowly repeated Samuel testing out the name upon his tongue "it kind of suits you," he said while sitting down next to Jason after all tonights events had been rather exhausting. "Its a much better name than some of the other capes within the city have come up with over the past few years that's for damn sure."

"Ya, some of the names a cape can come up with, are rather silly aren't they." She replied, getting an amused snort in return from Samuel since his soon to be former boss went by the stupid name of Skidmark. His two Parahuman cronies went by equally moronic names though the PRT were just as bad at times when it came to naming capes which was one of the reasons why he wanted her name so that he could give it to the police who they would then put it on record. Meaning that the protectorate couldn't label the wolf girl with a stupid or unflattering name like they did to that one guy who they called the bubble master. Because the guy could apparently create and control large, almost indestructible bubbles made out of water.

"Well, its been fun and all but I really need to go." With swift and graceful steps, Taylor ran over to a nearby apartment building's wall and proceeded to effortlessly climb it. Within a mere matter of seconds, she had climbed to the top disappearing over the side, leaving Samuel Richards along with his unconscious friend who he really needed to apologise to when he finally woke up. Which wouldn't happen until after the police finally arrived speaking of which the former merchant could now hear the sound of sirens slowly beginning to fill the cold night air with their loud and attention-catching noise.

**A few minutes later and a couple of rooftops away from the scene of the fight. **

_"Well, this was certainly an interesting night." _The young wolfish heroine thought to herself while swiftly running across the city's rooftops. _"I single-handedly stopped a robbery, destroyed a tinker vehicle and turned a man away from the path of evil" _really tonight's events had been far more exciting then she could have ever expected them to be. Hell, the Okami had even found out about a secret project that the merchants were secretly working on something that she would have to investigate and hopefully put a stop to it. Before whatever Skidmark and his gang of drugged up idiots were planning to do wind up hurting any of the innocent civilians of the city.

"_I'll have to tell dad about this" _she realised because whatever Skidmark was doing was affecting her farther who for the past month came home complaining about constant merchant attacks on the unions' equipment storehouse which now knowing what she did about the drug gangs activities made far too much sense because the drug kingpin was attacking the union and possibly other business across the city in order to steal equipment and whatever resources they could get their greedy hands on for whatever this so-called project that the vehicle tinker Squealer was working on.

"_It must be a pretty big deal to Skidmark if he's letting his underlings use Squealer's vehicles as back up for their heists." _Honestly, that part disturbed her greatly because a man like Skidmark if the rumours on PHO online are to be believed, was a paranoid drugged up nutcase with delusions of grandeur. Who would usually never trust his underlings with his girlfriend's tinker tech so the fact that he was doing so now set off all kinds of alarm bells within her brain.

"_I'm gonna have to do some digging around. Ruff up some of the merchants in order to find their hideout." _It would take time she knew that, but hopefully she could find the merchants main HQ before their project was completed.

"_Still it would be really helpful if I had more ability's besides growing flowers, summoning the sun, changing objects and my martial art prowess." _The Okami stopped on a rooftop for a second to catch her breath before blinking in curiosity as beams of silvery light suddenly began to shine down above her head. Swiftly turning her masked face upwards to try and see just where the light was coming from only to tilt her head in confusion when she saw an incomplete dragon constellation hanging peacefully within the star-filled night sky.

_"What a strange constellation," _the goddess thought as her tail suddenly began to start dripping with ink while an unusually strong urge to try and complete the constellation took hold within her very soul. _"I should properly try and fix it, after all, no work of art should be left uncompleted." _Raising her ink-stained tail towards the heavens time itself seemed to come to a complete stop and the world had suddenly lost all its colour turning the surrounding area into a grey landscape. However, it didn't bother Taylor as she was far too preoccupied with painting in the last remaining stars that the constellation needed in order to be completed.

"_Just one more star and done!" _As soon as Taylor had finished painting in the last star, she released her hold on reality allowing for the grey landscape to vanish and for the painted stars to become real but things didn't stop there. Because when the constellation was finally completed there was a sudden explosion of light so grand and blinding that even Taylor had to close her eyes lest she go blind by the grand explosion of heavenly light. After a few heartbeats, the light finally stopped shinning, which allowed the she-wolf to gently open her golden eyes and much to her own stupefied awe. Taylor found herself standing not on a random rooftop like the countless others that littered the city. But instead she was standing within the middle of a vast misty valley which was entirely surrounded on all sides by colossal mountains that were so huge that their tops pierced the very clouds themselves.

"Its quite peaceful wouldn't you agree lady Okami" a deep masculine voice that rumbled like a distant thunderstorm spoke from behind her which caused Taylor to quickly turn on the balls of her feet to see who else was here within this strange valley. What the young heroine saw caused her jaw to drop in awe because floating there just above the misty ground was a massive white dragon that made the Empire State building that resided in New York look small and insignificant by comparison. Also within its four clawed hands were yellow orbs through what propose they served, she didn't know. Still, they must be important for the massive dragon to be holding them so protectively.

"Your a…" Taylor began to speak while tilting her head in curiosity "albino Shenron?" the words that came out of her mouth caused the white dragon that looked like it could swallow her whole to blink in confusion.

"I don't know what a Shenron is," slowly replied the dragon, his grey eyes were shining with mirth. "But judging by the tone of your words I'll take that as a compliment." The colossal reptile chuckled, and for a moment Taylor was worried that the nearby mountains would crumble and fall by the sheer amount of power that was contained within the laugh. It also kind of sounded almost like a crackling thunderstorm which was quite fitting for a dragon of his size.

"Ah, but where are my manners?" The albino dragon said while bowing towards her with respect and to her great disbelief utmost reverence.

"Greetings Okami Taylor of house Hebert." The she-wolf froze as the dragon began his introduction shocked that he somehow knew her name. "Reincarnation of the sun goddess Amaterasu and mother to all life in the universe." Okay, what did he just call her? because Taylor was pretty sure that she wasn't some kind of reincarnation of an all-powerful being like a sun deity. "I am Yomigami dragon god of rejuvenation and all that falls within its domain" the dragon Yomigami lifted his head allowing his steel-grey eyes to stare deeply into her golden ones. "It was though your divine power oh great goddess of the sun that I have come into being." His tone was completely serious, and a small part of Taylor was having a really hard time in trying to deny his words as the truth. "So it is with the greatest of joys that I Yomigami offer my power to you oh great Okami lady Taylor of house Hebert." He finished speaking while bowing again odiously waiting for her response.

"_**what?!" **_

It was too bad that her response was far less dignified than his own polite introduction. Though if Taylor was correctly judging the thunderous laughter that filled the peaceful valley's rather flowery scented air, then the great dragon deity hadn't taken her worlds as an insult as she had initially feared. If anything he seemed to have found her shock and disbelief to be highly amusing and while Yomigami's merrily laugh thundered throughout the vast misty valley. Taylor couldn't shake the strange feeling that the events. She will no doubt see going forward on her journey towards being a hero was going to be even more crazy and insane than this strange meeting with an actual giant magical talking dragon god.

Oh if only Taylor knew that the future was going to be far stranger than she could have ever possibly imagined.


	7. Chapter 7

**The divine valley of the thirteen brush gods a few minutes after Yomigami had calmed down from his laughing fit. **

The rather sweet scent of many different types of flowers gently wafted through the cool breeze of the peaceful valley. While the red tattooed heroine Taylor Hebert comfortably laid down upon the soft grass-covered ground, in a basic meditation posse while calmly staring directly into the tranquil steel grey eyes of the rejuvenation dragon brush god Yomigami. Who despite being as tall as the famous New York's Empire State building, was still somehow managing to float within the air effortlessly. It was like the very laws of gravity didn't even bother the colossal white reptile. Though given his status as a brush god, it wouldn't even be that much of a surprise if he actually could completely ignore such things like gravity or other laws of nature. Since he was a divine creature and thus wasn't bound by the same limitations that the mortals on earth bet possessed.

"So I'm a reincarnated sun goddess, huh?" Awkwardly questioned Taylor while the alabaster wolf mask that the Okami usually wore as a part of her hero costume laid next to her side, allowing the gentle breeze of the valley to brush against her red tattooed face softly.

Yomigami huffed with amusement at Taylor's skepticism towards her divine status. "Yes, it is true." The white reptilian rejuvenation deity answered while twisting his massive body into a more comfortable position. "Why is it that you are having a hard time believing my words, lady Taylor?" The dragon asked a question of his own while never breaking eye contact with Taylor. Who's face took on a contemplative expression no doubt the young Okami was trying to figure out the best way to but her doubts about her At the same time, divinity into words.

"Well," the Okami began while her fluffy white tail swished back and forth through the air. "I really don't feel divine." That earned an amused chuckle from Yomigami, "plus Parahumans back on earth bet could do some pretty amazing things that people sometimes considered godly." The derisive snort that thundered throughout the air signaled that the dragon highly disagreed with what the people of Taylor's homeworld considered a godly accomplishment. "Not to mention that even though you say that I'm a deity, that doesn't exactly mean that it's true since you said it yourself that you're a creation of my powers." Taylor winced as those last words left her mouth since she honestly thought that the godly dragon would be angry at his belief of her godhood At the same time, into question. Still, surprisingly he just hummed contemplatively while nodding in understanding.

"Yes, those are excellent points, lady Taylor," responded Yomigami, who was smiling down at the Okami, showing that he wasn't offended in the slightest by her earlier statement. "So please allow me to make some of my own." The white reptile paused for a moment to fully gather his thoughts before continuing. "You believe that your abilities are the same as those strange mortals called Parahumans, correct?" The brush god's inquiry made Taylor tilt her wolf eared head sideways in curiosity while silently wondering where the massive dragon was going with this line of thought.

"Yeah, every superpower ever recorded in earth bet's history is related to Parahumans in someway." The Okami answered, receiving an understanding nod in return from the brush god.

"Indeed, yet your powers greatly differ from those found in the empowered mortals." Taylor's golden eyes blinked in confusion as she didn't quite understand how her own abilities were that much different from the heroes and villains that inhabited her homeworld of earth bet.

"How so?" the wolfish red tattooed teenager asked the dragon god.

"It's rather simple, really," Yomigami said while once again twisting his colossal reptilian form through the air. "Parahuman powers follow a certain theme of abilities per user with no actual deviations from that fixed set of powers." The brush god gazed intently into Taylor's golden eyes. "While you, my lady, possess multiple abilities that don't follow a fixed pattern that normally falls into the category of a Parahuman." Okay, Taylor had to admit that the dragon had a point there since her powers from what she had managed to research online were slightly out of the norm for Parahumans. "Least of all, how many of the super-powered morals do you know can control the very sun itself." The Okami felt her wolf ears twitch in annoyance at the unintentional reminder of the summoning incident and the grounding that shortly followed it.

"Still doesn't mean that I'm a goddess." Retorted Taylor pouting at the reminder of the sun incident while also not ready to give up on the argument that she was a Parahuman just yet.

"Oh really," replied Yomigami raising a scaly eyebrow, having found it amusing that the goddess was so stubborn about her divine status. "Well, if you are a Parahuman, then why don't you possess a Corona Pollentia nor its smaller Gamma counterpart?" Any argument that Taylor had thought up earlier to convince the dragon that she wasn't a goddess died within her throat at those words. Since it was true that Amy A.K.A, the medical heroine Panacea, had bluntly told the reincarnated sun deity during her stay at the hospital that the wolfish girl didn't have the two necessary pieces of brain matter to become a Parahuman, however, at the time, Taylor had thought the ability that made people ignore the strange things happening around her, was also effecting Amy preventing the medic from seeing the Corona and Gamma within her brain but now the Okami wasn't so sure that was the case any more thanks to Yomigami pointing out specific flaws in her logic.

"I don't have neither the Corona nor the Gamma." The heroine softly admitted to the dragon. At the same time, the realization that she couldn't possibly be a Parahuman without them finally began to take root within her mind.

As for Yomigami, the massive floating dragon gently smiled at the Okami, happy to see that Taylor was slowly beginning to understand that she wasn't a Parahuman.

"No, you haven't." Though he spoke quietly, the power contained within his voice made the earth slightly rumble, which had the positive side effect of returning Taylor's attention back onto Yomigami. "Not only don't you possess the brain growths that grant mortals their powers, but you also created this realm and myself, which is something that is far beyond anything those gifted with abilities on earth bet could ever possibly hope to accomplish." The white dragon allowed some pride to mix into his voice since it was indeed a grand accomplishment to create life from nothingness, which was exactly what the heroine sitting before him had done.

"Even if I'm not a Parahuman, that still doesn't mean that I'm a goddess." Taylor finally said to Yomigami after spending a few minutes thinking rather deeply over what the white dragon had told her. Sure the Okami was more than willing to admit that the abilities that she possessed weren't Parahuman related but actually admitting to being a reincarnation of a sun goddess was a whole other thing entirely.

Silence filled the valley as the two divine beings stared intensely at each other. How long the silent gazing into the other's soul went on for Taylor wasn't able to honestly tell it could have been minutes, hours, or even days, but in the end, it was Yomigani who finally broke the silence between them.

"Something is holding you back from accepting the truth of your divine status." The dragon brush god bluntly told the heroine, causing the Okami's jaw to drop at his statement. "I also sense that its something from your past." Taylor felt a pit began to form within the bottom of her stomach because she knew that he was right that something was indeed holding her back from embracing her divine nature. Taylor could already hear the very cause of her doubts beginning to whisper within her mind like a deadly poison.

"_Wow, look at Taylor; she's so fat and ugly its no wonder that she doesn't have any friends."_

_"Honestly, Hebert, your so clumsy falling down the stairs like that what you want to break your own neck or something."_

"_God, your so pathetic, Taylor. I can't believe that we used to be best friends!"_

Taylor felt her wolf ears flatten against her skull as the barbed words that her former best friend and the person that she had considered a sister in all but blood echo deep within her mind. Honestly, the heroine knew that Emma's betrayal, combined with the girl's relentless bullying campaign, had left a painful mark upon her soul. One that had only slightly lessened since the time she had gained her powers and started martial arts training under Onigiri sensei. Though the sun goddess was highly doubtful that the spiritual and mental wounds that her tormentors at Winslow high school had inflicted upon her over the years would ever fully heal.

"My former best friend, Emma, has been bullying me over the past few years now." The Okami quietly whispered to Yomigami, which made the albino dragon the second person she had ever told about Emma's terror campaign against her, with the first being her father. "It's hard for me to admit it, but she and the other people at school have hurt me both physically and mentally." Taylor stared down at her lap while a sad smile graced her lips. "The constant bullying has greatly harmed my self-confidence though I'm recovering thanks to going out at night being a hero and training under my sensei Onigiri." Whilst Taylor was busy staring at her lap. She had failed to notice that Yomigami's face had temporarily morphed into an angry snarl, the dragon brush god at that moment mentally vowed that if he ever should cross paths with the trio in the mortal world. Then he would make his displeasure towards their actions against the woman who had essentially birthed him into the world known, preferably with lots of fire.

"So the reason that you won't accept the truth that your a goddess is because you feel unworthy of the title." The dragon heaved a tired sigh knowing that such emotional problems weren't fixed so easily, though, from Taylor's own words, she was slowly recovering her confidence and healing from the torment of the past. Though sadly, the wounds and mental scars that her tormentors had inflected upon her wouldn't fade for quite some time.

"Yea." Softly agreed the Okami while reaching up a clawed hand from her lap so she could scratch one of her white fluffy wolf ears.

"Then prove that you are worthy." Yomigami's tone was caring yet firm at the same time. Gaining the undivided attention of the sun goddess. "You wish to be a hero?" Taylor nodded her wolf eared head in confirmation. "Then do so become the best hero that Brockton Bay has ever seen prove to yourself and no one else that you are worthy of the title and responsibilities that only a deity can handle." The colossal dragon's eyes seemed to burn with a fiery passion. After a moment of staring into those passionate steel grey eyes, Taylor was starting to feel that same passion beginning to build within her own heart.

"I think I'll do just that, Yomigami." Taylor resolvedly told the dragon whilst picking up her alabaster wolf mask from the ground, just holding the wooden object within her hands reminded the young deity why she wanted to be a hero in the first place. To protect the innocent from the evils that inhabited the world to prove that she wasn't worthless like Emma had always told her back at Winslow. Though after the Okami's little talk with the albino dragon brush god, she now had a much higher goal to reach. One that didn't involve proving the trio wrong now Taylor wanted to be the deity that would not only make her hometown a safer place for its citizens to live but also for the entire world as well.

"so how about that power-up you offered earlier?" The Okami asked, standing up from her meditation position while placing her alabaster mask back onto her tattooed face.

_"She's going to be just fine,"_ happily thought Yomigami. While grinning towards the now masked Okami, beyond glad that the one who had brought him into this world and thus his own mother was now happy and motivated to become the best goddess that she could possibly be. "Just give me a moment while I gather the power," he told her whilst gathering the power of rejuvenation, channeling the mighty abilities and powers that fell within his domain into a single point within his chest and then condensing it into a spherical form. Once that was done, the dragon pulled the power out of his body, causing a sphere of rainbow coloured lights with the Kanji for rejuvenation within its center to appear out of thin air; its multiple lights shined like a thousand falling stars.

"Wow, it's so beautiful," Taylor whispered with awe, colouring her tone while being absolutely mesmerized by the divine lights shinning from the orb that held the tremendous power of rejuvenation.

"Yes, it is, isn't it." Easily agreed the brush god as he gazed upon the physical manifestation of his divine powers. "My power is now yours; lady Taylor use it for healing not only yourself but also those who require its warming light." The dragon gave a small mental push causing the orb to fly through the air. Its small form swiftly whizzed a few times around Taylor's body before entering the heroine's chest, making her gasp in surprise as the power fused into her wolfish form, increasing her divine powers and granting the wolf girl the mighty healing power of rejuvenation.

_"Wow, I feel incredible," _thought Taylor while joyfully basking in the comforting warmth of the rejuvenation powers that Yomigami had gifted her. That is until a sharp pain had suddenly shot threw the base of her spine, causing the Okami to grimace a little at the feeling of discomfort; thankfully, the slight pain didn't last for long only a few seconds really, but once it was over Taylor felt fine. However, for a strange reason, the she-wolf felt a new weight added to the base of her spine right where the beginning of her fluffy tail was located.

While the Okami was mentally trying to figure out what had just happened, Yomigami was busy staring at a new addition to Taylor's form. "Well, I certainly didn't expect for your new power to manifest itself like that." The dragon brush god could hardly keep the amusement out of his tone.

"Like what?" Taylor curiously asked the dragon god of rejuvenation.

"Just twist your head to look at your tail, and you'll see what I mean." Simply replied, Yomigami, who was trying very hard not to laugh at the moment since he knew that the sun goddess reaction to what had happened to her was going to be beyond funny to witness.

"Okay." Confusedly responded Taylor while turning her head towards her tail and what she saw left her dumbfounded because instead of finding just one fluffy white tail, she found two. However, the new one was slightly different since it had black dragon scaly markings running up from the base towards the top. At the same time, the tip of this new tail was yellow, which reminded the Okami of the mystic yellow orbs that Yomigami always held so protectively within his clawed hands.

"**I have a second tail!" **

Yomigami laughed joyfully at Taylor's rather energetic, not to mention loud outburst, which caused the earth to tremble and the mountains in the far distance to rumble slightly. Honestly, it was just so funny to see her staring dumfounded at the new tail like she couldn't believe that it was indeed there.

"Yes, you do have a new tail, my lady," confirmed Yomigami after finally gaining control over his laughter.

Taylor pouted at the dragon for laughing at her though it was hidden thanks to the alabaster wolf mask. "Well, I'm glad that at least one of us is enjoying this." Grumpily said the Okami while pawing at her newly gained tail honestly, a small part of Taylor wanted to chase it like she had done to her original tail, back at the hospital. But knowing that she had to get back home soon or else her dad would start to worry caused the wolf girl to suppress that particular urge.

"So um not like I don't like your company or anything, Yomigami, but how do I leave the divine valley?" Taylor asked the dragon while ignoring the two tails swishing lazily behind her back.

"You already possess the knowledge to leave the valley any time you desire, lady Taylor. All you need to do is focus inwardly, and the information shall make itself known to you." Calmly Yomigami explained, causing Taylor to whine a little since she wasn't all that good at the whole, focusing internally to find your inner peace thing that Onigiri sensei had been trying to teach her in between training sessions over the past month, which seemed to be necessary for her to access the knowledge on how to leave the divine valley.

"_Welp, here goes nothing!" _Thought the Okami closing her golden eyes whilst slowing down her breathing until it comes out in a calm and peaceful rhythm. While also casting away all thoughts and distractions from her mind so that she could more easily focus inwardly and grasp onto the knowledge that she sought. After a few minutes of silently searching internally for the knowledge on how to leave the; Taylor valley, Taylor saw within her mind's eye two golden orbs of light that she instinctively knew held the knowledge about what she sought. So without a moments delay, the goddess mentally grabbed onto the golden light orbs, causing information on how to leave the valley to flood into her mind, along with how to come back when she wanted to.

"So all I need to do to leave the valley. Is to simply write the Kanji for return with the divine ink from my tail." It sounded so simple to do yet. Taylor knew that it wasn't because the writer didn't just need the Kanji. They also needed to have the desire to return to the mortal plane and have a set destination in mind. Otherwise, the person using the returnability might accidentally find themselves in the middle of the ocean or worse inside an active volcano, something that Taylor would rather avoid if she could help it.

Anyway, now that she knew how to leave the divine valley, Taylor immediately made her original tail start dripping with ink, ready to draw the return kanji. "Thanks for the help and advice, Yomigami." Taylor sincerely thanked the dragon for his help while beginning to draw out the needed Kanji in the air with her original tail.

"It was no problem, my lady," replied the dragon who watched as the Kanji was being drawn within the air, and with each gentle brushstroke, the air surrounding the Kanji seemed to crackle with small bits of lightning and warped reality with its power. "Though I do have something to suggest that you do while roaming the mortal realm." At hearing that, Taylor paused her drawing to stare at the brush, god, wondering what he might suggest she do whilst out and about on earth bet.

"Oh, and what would that be?" Curiously asked Taylor while tilting her wolf eared head.

"Feed some animals." Taylor's golden eyes blinked in confusion, wondering why the god would suggest that she feed animals of all things while on earth bet, and the dragon must have noticed her confusion since he swiftly continued. "Just give it a try; you'll be surprised what a single act of kindness can do for not only yourself but for those around you."

"Alright, I'll give a try." Agreed the Okami seeing no harm at giving Yomigami's suggestion a try.

"That's all I ask for, lady Taylor." Replied the dragon brush god who watched Taylor resume drawing the return kanji, and as it neared completion, a mischievous idea formed within Yomigami's mind, one he was sure would greatly amuse him for many years to come.

"Please visit whenever you like my lady," started the dragon, who was barely holding himself back from snickering. "After all, it would be so lonely here without my mother to sometimes visit and keep me company." The dragon didn't need enhanced eyesight to know that the Okami was taken by surprise by his words. He was also sure that if he saw her face that was hidden by the alabaster wolf mask right now, she would probably be as red as a freshly plucked tomato, something that highly amused the dragon just thinking about it.

"What did you just…" unfortunately, before Taylor could finish her outburst, she had accidentally finished the return kanji. Causing her to vanish from the divine valley with a flash of light, leaving behind a laughing Yomigami who would always think back to this very moment as one of his fondest memories.

**Meanwhile, back on earth bet.**

"Call me!" Screamed Taylor in shock and embarrassment while appearing back at the same rooftop where she had completed Yomigami's constellation, which was now shining brightly over Brockton Bay in all its divine glory.

Needless to say that it didn't take the now two-tailed she-wolf long to realize that she was now back on top of the same rooftop that she had been teleported from. As the horrible stench of car fumes and rotting trash swiftly filled her nose, it was a stark contrast to the heavenly smell that the divine valley frequently gave off. For a moment, Taylor was highly tempted to draw the Kanji, which would send her back to the valley. So that she could once again enjoy the flowery scent that had filled the air there, But the urge to return home to her farther won out over her desire of not wanting to smell the nasty stench that filled the polluted air of the city. Plus, if she did go back to the valley right now, then she would have to deal with a certain laughing dragon god.

_"Stupid overgrown gecko." _The heroine grumbled to herself while beginning to run swiftly across the rooftops wanting to get home as fast as possible because from what she saw from a nearby clock, it had been nearly two hours since her little surprise visit to the divine valley. Meaning that she had to get back home soon unless she wanted to be grounded again by her farther for staying out later than they had both and agreed upon. "_Just you wait, Yomigami, I shall have my revenge!" _Oh yes, Taylor was already thinking up plenty of pranks to get back at the dragon god for embarrassing her like he had done. It was too bad that none of them would work on a creature of his vast size, but hey, it was nice to dream.

**The Hebert household. **

"Ah, home sweet home," whispered Taylor with a happy smile while quietly entering her home from the backyard entrance. "Though dad seems to be asleep." The goddess could hear the faint sound of her dad snoring upstairs within his bedroom, something that the Okami was grateful for since her dad had a very stressful job at the union, which had only gotten worse since the merchants had begun raiding their storehouse for tools and equipment. So knowing that he was at least getting a good nights rest made her very happy.

_"Maybe I should make him breakfast tomorrow_." Contemplated Taylor whilst quietly making her way up the stairs being extra careful not to make any loud sounds so as not to disturb her sleeping farther. _"He's done so much for the union and me. Over the past month, he deserves a little reward for all his hard work." _With the plan to make an excellent breakfast for her dad tomorrow as a small thank you gift solidified within her mind, Taylor sneaked past her farther's bedroom and entered her own room so that she could finally go to bed and get some much-deserved sleep of her own.

"Ah, I can finally get some sleep." Whispered the Okami while heading towards her bed, only to pause mid-stride, when an unfamiliar scent of an unknown male wafted into her nose. Which caused the wolfish teenager to release a threatening growl from the back of her throat as her basic wolf instincts screamed at the sun deity to hunt down the unknown person who had dared to invade her territory. The scent was still fresh, meaning that she could track it, so not wasting any time, Taylor breathed in the scent of the intruder. The person that she was tracking smelled of earth and wet grass, a strange combination for anyone who lived within a city.

_"He's close," _thought Taylor as she quietly followed the scent taking in the occasional deep breaths through the nose so that she wouldn't lose it during the hunt. "_Very close in there!" _The trail had led the wolf girl to her closet, meaning that the person who had dared to sneak into her bedroom was no doubt hiding inside, which was very convenient since she needed a place to hide the body from her dad once she was through with the bastard.

Without a moment to lose, Taylor violently opened her closet, expecting to see some random guy trying to hide inside the small closet. Though instead of a guy, all Taylor saw was an empty closet with only her clothes and bits of art supplies to fill the space.

"_What the hell?!" _Thought a confused Okami as she thoroughly scanned the closet for the intruder. _"I know that the sneaky bastard is in here somewhere because I can still smell him!" _The sun goddess released another angry growl, the sound of her rage at not finding the person that had broken into her room vibrated rather loudly within the closets confined space.

_"Oh, crap!" _A faint tiny voice suddenly squeaked out from below, causing the Okami to look down towards the source allowing her to see, thanks to her enhanced eyesight, a small person around the size of a bug surrounded by a white light. Standing there on the ground of the closet, the little guy looked nervous. It didn't take a genius to figure out why, since this small person had the same scent as the intruder that she had been tracking. That and the little bastard had a pair of her underwear clenched tightly within his small hands, meaning that the little pervert had been in the middle of stealing her clothes before she had come into the bedroom.

"_Hum," _the tiny male looked at her in surprise for a second before hurriedly yelling, _"I can explain!" _Though all that had managed to accomplish was to enrage Taylor further as she swiftly dropped onto all fours taking a stance that closely resembled what a real-life wolf would possess while her fluffy wolf ears flattened themselves tightly against her skull.

_"Wait, wait, wait! We don't need to get violent here!_" Screamed the tiny male who had dropped her underwater and was now slowly backing away from her. However, that only managed to aggregate Taylor further as she growled threateningly whilst creeping closer towards the tiny person who had tried to steal certain items from her bedroom. _"I mean it's not like eating me or something along those lines is going to solve this ha ha ha awkward situation, right?!" _The small unknown man smiled nervously at the sun deity, hoping that she would agree with him.

"Oh, I strongly disagree." Snarled Taylor, while divine retribution's red and gold flames glowed brighter, bathing the wolf girl in a rather ominous light. "Because I think eating your pervert ass will make me feel delighted at the moment." With those last words uttered, the sun deity lunged at the tiny man causing the miniature thief to release a girly scream in response while managing to dodge the enraged Okami's forward lunge successfully.

"Get back here, you dirty pervert!" Roared Taylor as she chased after the tiny while glowing light man. Who ran out of the closet screaming that girly scream of his all the while.

"No way, I choose life!" Screamed back the tiny thief who jumped unbelievably high into the air, dodging a clawed swipe from one of Taylor's outstretched hands. "Besides, don't you think that you're overreacting just a little bit!" The bug sized person kept dodging the attacks that the sun goddess threw at him though his words only managed to increase her rage towards the underwear thief.

"I'm reacting just fine to the situation, you underwear stealing pervert!"

**Meanwhile, with Danny Hebert.**

The patriarch of the Hebert family was fast asleep within his warm comfy bed with his head currently filled with pleasant dreams of the union actually prospering with many high paying jobs. Which helped them look after their families and that his daughter was a beloved hero of the city with no dangerous villains insight that would no doubt try to cause harm to his little owl. There also wasn't any teenaged boys trying to data his little owl, so essentially everything within Danny's dream was picture perfect.

"Crash! Boom! Girly screams!"

It was such a great shame that it had to come to an end, though, as the multiple sounds of Taylor's and the tiny bug sized man's chase had awakened the patriarch of the Hebert clan from his peaceful slumber.

"What the hell!?" Groggily said Danny retrieving his glass from the nightstand while the sound of chaos loudly vibrated through the house.

_**"Please, I said that I was sorry!" **_Danny groggily blinked his eyes in confusion when he thought he heard what sounded like a tiny girl's voice screaming through the house.

"**Sorry, doesn't cut it, you stupid perv!" **Now that was defiantly his daughter's voice, and by the sound of things, she was beyond pissed.

"_I better go see what the hells going on." _With a tired groan, Danny got out of bed quickly slipped on a bathrobe while making sure to grab his metal baseball bat that he only used to protect the house from robbers or any type of criminal that wasn't a Parahuman. He left his bedroom to see what was going on with Taylor.

"Taylor!" The farther of the sun deity called out to his daughter whilst standing outside of her room where the sound of crashing and tiny screaming could be heard coming from within. "Is everything…" he grabbed the handle, twisted it then, pushed it, making the door swing inwardly, allowing for Danny to see what was happening inside. "All right?" The leader of the dockworkers union stared in utter bafflement at the scene that lay before him. The art-filled room of his little owl resembled a war zone, with various art supplies and clothing laying scattered everywhere. However, that didn't hold his attention for long when he saw that his daughter. Who, shockingly enough, had two tails was crouching on all fours snarling furiously at a tiny ball of white light that was standing on top of Taylor's bed and was somehow welding a plastic measuring ruler like it was some type of sword. While using the aforementioned plastic measuring instrument to help keep the angry Okami at bay.

"Oh, thank the gods!" It said something and probably none of it meaning anything good for his sanity that Danny wasn't even the least bit surprised that the tiny ball of light could speak. Though he would have to reiterate that the scream that he had heard earlier was a man's voice and not a little girls like he had first thought. "Please help me; she's crazy!" The tiny creature pleaded for help though Danny wasn't quite sure that he wanted to get in-between the little glowing creature and his clearly enraged daughter who he noticed had a strange flaming desk weapon floating upon her back.

"He won't save you, pervert!" Danny felt amusement when his little owl went for a swipe at the tiny creature only to get her hand smacked away by the ruler for the effort. "As a matter of fact, dad's going to help me kick your tiny ass once I tell him you tried to steal my underwear!" Danny's amusement vanished when his daughter's words registered within his mind. Because not a single soul on earth bet who tried that kind of crap with his only daughter would be allowed to walk away. At least not without having a few of their teeth smashed in and some rather essential limbs broken via him using his metal baseball bat upon the aforementioned perpetrator.

"Hey, I already told you that I can explain that!" Replied the tiny ball of light which once again swotted away one of the sun deity's clawed hands.

"Like hell, you can!" Barked back his daughter, who was intensely watching the light ball awaiting for the right moment to strike at the tiny thief who was using the plastic ruler as a defensive weapon.

As the two bickered back and forth, Danny Hebert was sadly left with the only option to watch the madness continue from the sidelines while the words that perfectly summed up the chaos that was going on before him echoing within his mind.

"_I'm getting far too old for this shit!" _


	8. Chapter 8

**The Docks Local Japanese Shrine. **

**Approximately an hour after Taylor left the area. **

The area surrounding the shrine was a hive of police activity. As policemen had hurriedly cornered off the site from the civilian population whilst a small team of medical personnel placed the recently deceased merchant gang members corpses into plastic body bags for safe transport to the closest city morgue for proper processing and identification. Though honestly, it would most likely take a few weeks to correctly identify all of the deceased merchants since the city didn't really have detailed records on the city's homeless population. Of course, that was due to the fact that the higher-ups that helped run Brockton Bay didn't care about the homeless population since they could really contribute to their political agendas.

As for the two surviving former Merchant members, who had surrendered themselves after the local authorities had arrived at the shrine, they have been shipped off to Brockton Bay's police station. Where the two shall stay until a decision on what to do with them was decided upon. By either the police chief or a judge. It was highly fortunate for the ex-merchants to have left when they did because a particular Asian gang leader had arrived a few minutes after the police had transported them away to the police station. Needless to say, he wasn't happy with what he saw.

**Front Entrance To The Shrine. **

"_Skidmark has gone too far this time." _Furiously thought Kenta Ryoto while standing near the entrance to the shrine where he would usually go to pray to the gods of his homeland. The dragon-themed Parahuman was currently dressed in a pure black business suit while also holding a briefcase that contained paperwork for his more legal businesses. Honestly, if anyone saw Kenta as he was now, they'll never guess that he was. It infamous ABB gang leader Lung. And that was how Kenta liked it since this disguise allowed him to travel from place to place throughout the city without drawing unwanted attention from the other gang or the local heroes.

"_Attacking a holy site! Such a sin is unforgivable!" _Kenta's inner dragon was begging to let out, to be released and allowed to burn those responsible for this attempted theft of a sacred site. Yet as tempted as Lung was to unleash his wrath upon Skidmark and the Merchants. He knew that the safety and protection of the shrine and its sacred relics came first. So without wasting time, Kenta went underneath the yellow police tape that was cutting off the shrine from the civilians, some of whom were watching from their apartment windows or recording the policies activities with their phones from the other side of the road.

Kenta casually walked up the steps that lead into the shrine. The policemen surrounding the area weren't going to stop him from entering because the law enforcement officers that operated within the docks were either secretly members of the ABB or corrupt cops that accepted his money and other benefits that the ABB could provide, which means that Lung literally ruled the whole area surrounding the Docks and boat graveyard. However, Kenta would soon have to remind a particular gang leader why he was the emperor of this part of Brockton Bay.

_"Hum, thankfully, the internal damages seem to be only minor." _Analyzed Kenta while giving the shrine's insides a quick once over. "_Though I'll have to contact some local construction business and have them come to repair the damage done by those merchant fools." _Lung's blood boiled with rage at the harm done to the shrine that he prayed within on a daily basis. That rage grew even stronger once he saw the destroyed pedestal that had once held Divine retribution, an artefact that Kenta had brought with him from Japan after his epic battle against leviathan.

"_The sacred disc of the sun is gone!" _Kenta ran over to the destroyed pedestal. "_But how?! Only those gifted with great amounts of spiritual energy or divine power should be able to move the disc!" _The ABB Leader frantically searched around the shrine, hoping that the holy artefact had just rolled into a corner after its pedestal had gotten destroyed. Sadly after a few minutes of pointless searching, Kenta was forced to admit that the artefact that had been in his family for generations was truly gone.

"_I've got to find it," _Kenta felt his powers beginning to activate, causing the temperature within the shrine to slightly rise in response. "_The scared disc of the sun has been within the family ever since our founder received it as a gift after finishing his priest training." _The dragon Parahuman was so consumed with his fear of having lost his family heirloom that he failed to notice that someone else was entering the shrine. A person who just so happened to like putting oranges on top of his bald head.

"~Well, well, well.~" softly spoke Mr Orange causing Kenta to turn towards the wise old man whose walking stick gently tapped against the wooden flooring. "I can't say that I'm surprised to see you, Kenta." Mr Orange smiled knowingly whilst slowly walking over to stand by the Parahuman's side. "Especially since you've never once failed to come to pray at my shrine every single day." The old man chuckled while his light blue kimono slightly shifted in the gentle breeze that was coming from the destroyed entrance to the shrine.

"Mr Orange." Kenta greeted the shrine owner whilst bowing in respect. "Forgive me for the intrusion; however, I just wanted to make sure that my family heirloom was safe."

Mr Orange chuckled again. "Its quite alright, Kenta." The wise shrine owner reassured while stroking his floor-length white beard. "Though unfortunately, it would seem that the Kami who fought those Merchant hoodlums off has taken the heirloom." Mr. Orange's eyes opened a moment later, reviling a pair of bright blue eyes that shined with great wisdom and a near-infinite amount of kindness. Those eyes were focused entirely on the destroyed pedestal, where Divine retribution had once rested.

"Yes, the person, who fought the Merchant scum have indeed seemed to have…" began Kenta, only to pause when Mr. Orange's words truly registered themselves within his mind. "What….what did you just say?" The supervillain known and feared throughout Brockton Bay as Lung stared stupefied at the older man while his charcoal black eyes widen in a mixture of shock and awe.

Mr. Orange smiled in amusement at the stupefied expression that Kenta was giving him. "What you've got wax in your ears, Kenta." The shrine owner tapped his staff on the floor repeatedly. "Because I thought that I spoke quite clearly when I said that a Kami was responsible for taking the artefact and stoping those hooligans from stealing from my shrine." Mr. Orange pointed his staff towards the broken pedestal. "If you don't believe me, then channel some chi into your eyes and see for yourself."

Without giving it a second thought, Kenta did as Mr Orange had instructed and channel a small amount of inner chi into his eyes, causing them to glow faintly. Though if Kenta was aware of this faint glow, he showed no signs of it as he was far too enraptured by the golden energy that surrounds the pedestals remains; with just a glance, the gang leader knew that he was gazing upon divine power. However, it was only cast-offs from Taylor's form though the small piece of divine power still shined like a miniature sun. It was indeed one of the most beautiful sights that Kenta's mortal eyes had ever seen.

"A Kami has graced us with their presence." Kenta's tone was filled with awe as he withheld the urge to fall onto his knees and start praying before the divine energy. Because as much as he really wanted to pray before the piece of divine power, Kenta had to remember that he was a leader of the ABB and thus had a reputation and image to maintain. Meaning that sadly he'll have to wait until this whole mess with Skidmark was sorted out before he could pray before the divine power in peace.

"Yes, one has indeed." Said Mr Orange as he too stared with reverence at the shining beacon of divine light. "And thanks to that little incident with the sun a few weeks back. We know which of the Kami has come to the city." The wise Mr Orange folded his hand on top of the staff while he quietly watched Kenta's reaction to the revelation on exactly which Kami had descended from the heavens.

"Amaterasu," Kenta whispered the name of the sun goddess with utmost reverence. "Of course, it would be her; after all, only she has the power to move the sun." The gang leader felt like kicking himself at that moment for not realizing this revelation sooner. Though to be fair at the time, he had reasonable thought that it was just another Patrahuman with powerful abilities that had moved the sun and not the sun goddess that his family had worshipped for centuries.

"I have to find her!" Exclaimed Kenta after snapping out of his reverence. "She's alone and unguarded within the city." He had to leave now and start searching for Amaterasu. It was his duty as a devoted follower of the deities that protected his homeland of Japan. And as a direct descendent of a long line of priest. To defend her celestial highness from all those who would seek to harm her. Of course, while he searched the city for the sun deity, he'll have his gang deal with the merchants. Because there was no way that Kenta was going to allow their actions this night go unpunished, especially now that he knew that the drug dealers had dare try and attack a Kami.

Mr. Orange raised an eyebrow at the quickly leaving dragon Parahuman. _"That boy's got more energy than I did that his age." _Thought the wise elder while he followed Kenta to the exit of the shrine. "_Though that's probably due to those Parahuman powers of his that allow Kenta to be so energized." _Mr. Orange sighed at how hyper the younger man was acting yet decided not to comment on it since he figured that those with youth should enjoy it while it lasts.

"I agree that you should get going, Kenta." Softly said Mr Orange while he and Kenta now stood outside of the shrine. "The Protectorate should be here soon, and I would rather not have another fight happen if they somehow recognize you." The shrine had taken enough damage, and Mr. Orange would be damned if he allowed it to come too more harm on his watch. Plus, it would be rather difficult for him to explain precisely why Kenta was at the shrine in the first place, and he certainly couldn't say that Kenta had come to check up on his family heirloom, and a goddess took that said heirloom.

Kenta understood this little fact, so he just nodded in agreement.

"I'll be off then, Mr. Orange, and please, if you see her celestial highness, do not hesitate to inform me." Kenta adjusted his tie, and with one last respectful bow, he left the area leaving behind Mr. Orange, who stroked his white beard while humming in deep thought.

_"It's a good thing I didn't tell Kenta about Taylor." _The shrine elder opened his eyes again, allowing the wise orbs to watch a group of nearby policemen busy themselves with gathering up the pieces of scrap metal that had initially come from Squealer's vehicle. "_She's just coming into her divinity, and though he means well, Kenta at this stage will just cause more harm than good for Taylor." _Mr. Orange allow a tiny smile to form as the memories of his time at the hospital came flooding back. Honestly, when he first volunteered to donate his kidney to help save a little girl's life, he had never imaged that it would allow him to meet a Kami, let alone teach one how to paint or draw art.

"_Hum, the future of this city is sure to be very interesting." _The shrine owner walked down the steps of the shrine after noticing that the Protectorate had arrived in the costume Tinker tech vehicles. "_Though I can only pray that Taylor's powers mature before anything bad can happen to Brockton Bay." _Mr. Orange's worry was well-founded since the Merchants were on the move. Now Kenta was going to be hunting for not only them but for Taylor as well. It was a situation that could cause significant harm to the city, yet despite knowing the chaos which might come in the future, the elder understood that he could do nothing except have faith that the young goddess will handle it and bring peace back to Brockton Bay.

"_~Oh, divine Kami Taylor Hebert.~" _The elder mental began praying while greeting Armsmaster one of the Bay's local heroes. "_~I, Mr. Orange, sincerely pray that you shall protect us, your humble followers in these dark times.~" _After the introductions were out of the way, he led the heroes into the shrine, where Armsmaster did some tests to try and find any clues as to what had happened here. Much to Mr. Orange's relief, the Tinker and his companions didn't discover the divine energy. "_~For there is a growing threat from the Merchants who seek to poison the innocent with their drugs.~"_

"_~you are the only hope for this world, and I can only pray that your divine judgment upon those poison sellers is swift yet fair.~" _Once Armsmaster was satisfied with his scans of the shrine, the Tinker. Along with his companion, Miss Militia exited swiftly and made their away towards Squealer's Tinker vehicle. However, the elder didn't stay to watch over them as he wanted to get home and spend some time with his beloved wife, Mrs. Orange, who was probably already making some of her famous Orange pie. A treat that Mr Orange simply loved to eat.

"_~Thus I pray and thus I hope you receive my prayers oh divine one.~"_

"_~My your holy light shine down upon us from the heavens Amen.~"_

**Meanwhile, at the Hebert residents. **

**Living room. **

"So, you're a Poncle?" Asked Danny while sitting upon his favourite chair. Taylor was sitting on the couch next to him and was growling menacingly at the tiny being, which was revealed to be a Poncle who was currently trapped within a jar. Though honestly, it was more for the little guy's protection than as a means of keeping him trapped and unable to escape from the house since his daughter still wanted to rip the tiny Poncle into pieces. Not that he could blame her as Danny also wanted to hurt the little pervert for trying to steal his little Owl's underwear. Yet, for the sake of getting to the bottom of this strange situation, he had reform from doing so and prevent Taylor from annihilating the Poncle from existence.

"Yep," the Poncle answered while making sure to pop the 'p' at the end. "I'm a spirit-being called a Poncle, and the reason I was inside your daughter's room earlier was because I was collecting material so some of my fellow Poncles can turn it into clothes." While he didn't outwardly show it, Danny was relieved that the Poncle wasn't some kind of sick pervert that was trying to steal his little Owl's underwear so that he could use them for some sort of twisted fantasy.

"Do you have a name?" Danny raised an eyebrow at his daughter's sudden question. She seemed to be calmer now though just because Taylor appeared to be calm didn't mean that he was going to let the Poncle out of the jar. After all, like himself, Taylor had inherited the ability to hide her rage behind a calm mask, which allowed either of them to trick the target of their wrath into a false sense of security only to rip into them violently. Once they got the chance to unleash their fury upon the deserving party.

The Poncle's white light turned red, which indicated that the tiny being felt angry or rage at the moment. "Of course I've got a name!" The annoyed Poncle jumped around inside the jar, causing it to rattle slightly. "Akari Kabutomushi is my name, and don't you ever forget it, wolf girl!" Akari continued to jump around within the jar in anger, much to the hidden amusement of the Hebert family.

"Alright, settle down, Akari." Sternly ordered Danny as he wanted to continue this conversation it took a few minutes, but eventually, Akari settled back down. "Now, I want to know how many Poncles are inside our house, and I would like to know where you came from." Akari seemed to go unnervingly still. For a moment, Danny was worried that he wouldn't tell them anything though thankfully, it appeared the Poncle's little episode of stillness was only temporary as he slowly began talking about the info that the Hebert patriarch wanted to know about.

"There's not that many of us actually," Akari admitted with a shrug. "Probably around eight hundred at the most." Danny paled at the number since he had no clue that so many Poncle had been living underneath his roof without either he or Taylor noticing.

"As for where we come from." Akari stared at the ceiling with what could only be religious reverence etched upon his face. "We Poncles were born from the holy black rain which had fallen from the heavens and once touching the soil of the earth, it split into small parts and shaped itself into us the Poncles." The story of the Poncles origin made Danny sigh because this holy black rain sounded highly familiar, and if he was judging his Little Owl's shocked face correctly, she had also come to the same conclusions as himself.

"Uh, Akari." Hesitantly began Danny since he really didn't want to be right about his theory about the Poncles creation. "Does the holy black rain look anything like this." He gestures towards Taylor, who used her new tail to form the ink which she used to perform her divine powers, not that Danny knew yet about his daughter's recently revealed divinity.

As for Akari, he could only stare dumbfounded at the ink which had given the Poncle race life, and it wasn't long before he managed to put two and two together.

"Oh, holy life, bringer!" Screamed Akari making the two Hebert's wince at how high his scream was. "Your our creator." The Poncle went onto his knees and bowed deeply to Taylor. "Oh, divine creator, I'm so sorry for trying to steal your underwear!" Danny snickered since the last sentence Akari uttered was just so ridicules and unexpected that the Hebert patriarch couldn't help but find it funny. Though sadly, his daughter didn't seem to share his opinion if the glare she was sending him was of any indication.

"Hum, it's okay you didn't mean any harm." poor Little Owl, she seemed to be so lost when it came dealing with the now prostrating Poncle. Though truthfully, Danny was equal out of his element when it came to this particular situation. After all, those parent classes that his wife had forced him to attend didn't cover how to handle tiny spirit beings that worshipped his daughter as a creator deity. Even if they did, he was reasonably sure that it wouldn't have adequately prepared him for this strange mess that he and Taylor had found themselves in.

"Thank you, mighty creator." The prostrating Akari said, which causes his daughter to shift uncomfortably on the couch. "The mercy and understanding you've shown me this day shall be known to all Poncle kind." Okay, now Danny really needed to get things back on track before they could become more awkward.

"As grateful as my daughter is about your devotion Akari." Danny expertly ignored the deadpan expression his daughter was sending him at the moment. "We really should be discussing how we're all going to be living together." There was absolutely no way that Danny was going to allow for the Poncles to go off and populate other locations around Brockton Bay. Especially now that Akari knows that his Little Owl created them if even one of the tiny spirits let slip that Taylor could create life then the gangs would swarm the house in order to try and recruit his daughter into their respective organizations. That didn't even cover the PRT whose reputation in regards to bio tinkers was about as warm and inviting as the antarctic.

"That's not going to be much of a problem, Grand Forefather," Akari responded while Danny's eyebrow raised in curiosity at the title the Poncle bestowed upon him. "We, Poncle, have built a mighty city underneath this house where all of us stay and live out our daily lives." The Poncle puffed out his chest in pride while the light surrounding him turn golden, making Danny suspect that the colour meant pride or something close to it at least.

"Well, I'll have to inspect this mighty city of yours tomorrow to maker sure you've not built it near anything important or dangerous." Sighing since he knew how much time it would take to complete such a task. Danny reached over and unscrewed the jar's top allowing for Akari to jump out of his former prison. "Though for now, I think Akari that you should return to your people and tell them that I'm coming to visit."

"Sure thing Grand Forefather!" Akari saluted the elder Hebert before turning and bowing towards Taylor. "And a good night to you as well Lady Taylor." Before his daughter could respond, Akari jumped off of the table that the jar had been resting upon and swiftly disappeared from view, leaving both Hebert's alone within the house.

"~soooooo, that just happened.~" Danny snorted at Taylor's words because yes, that did just happen, and tomorrow the both of them would have to deal with it.

"Yes, yes, it did." Agreed the Hebert patriarch while rubbing his forehead to help try and stop the growing headache he felt slowly creeping upon him. "Just so we can avoid anything that could give me a heart attack, is there anything else I should about before we go to bed." He meant it as a joke, but the edgy look that Taylor was sending him wasn't a good sign for his future mental health.

"Well," his Little Owl Gavin him a nervous smile. "Turns out that I'm actually a reincarnation of the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu." She laughed nervously while he could only stare at her with a deadpan expression.

"Anything else." There couldn't be anything more shocking than that Danny was absolutely sure, yet the universe seemed to love proving him wrong, and the next words his daughter spoke established that without a single doubt.

"I'm also a Mother to an empire states building-sized dragon, which also happens to be a deity." Okay, Danny knew that there was only one course of action any rational human being should take after hearing that they were now a grandparent to a dragon deity.

"I'm gonna go and get a drink." Without saying anything else, Danny left the room and headed towards the refrigerator. Where he planned to grab the most potent alcoholic drink, he could find and have a nice farewell drink to sanity and everything excellent and peaceful that had come with it. As for Taylor, she could only watch her father leave the living room with a somewhat relieved expression, and without thinking, she blurted out the first words that came to mind about the last few minutes.

"Welp dad took everything about being a grandfather and me being a deity better than I first thought he would."


End file.
